
Clas72£/_iLi. 



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COPVRICHT DEPOSffi 



THE NEW TOCOLOGY 




Copyright, 1903, by Wm. H. Lee. 

THE PERFECT WOMAN. 



POPULAR EDITION 



THE 



NEW TOCOLOGY 



The Science of Sex and Life 



Physiology and Hygiene of the Vital Organization 

— Health and Beauty — 

Education and Chabla^cter-Building 

BY 

ELI F. BROWN, M. S., M. D. 

and 

JOSEPH H. GREER, M. D. 



''WOMAN, KmOW THYSELK 



99 




REVISED EDITION 



ILLUSTRATED BY RUTH BLAKE, M. D. 



CHICAGO 

Laird & Lee, Publishers 






COPYRIGHTED, 1911 
By WM. H. LEE 



Copyright, 1902, By J. H. Greer 
Copyright, 1903, By Wm. H. Lee 
Copyright, 1921, By Laird & Lee, Inc. 



JUL187 

@CI,A322061 




OBEY NATURE'S LAWS! 

HE purpose of this volume is to give in concise 
form, and in plain, clean, common-sense lan- 
guage, the all-important information about sex and 
procreation and the appertaining laws of health 
and hygiene as established by the best modern 
authorities. 

Primarily intended for wives and mothers, it will be found 
of special value as well to parents and educators who desire 
to teach the rising generation the vital truths of sex life. 
How to teach these truths has been a vexing problem to 
many teachers and parents, and a modest, compact and 
scientific exposition, such as this work presents, has long been 
needed. 

In all the vast realm of knowledge there is no subject of 
greater importance. Unfortunately for the well-being of man- 
kind, there is no other subject upon which the great majority 
are so densely ignorant. A veil of mystery and prudishness 
has been cast over these vital facts and truths. But the 
innocence that is innocent only through ignorance, is in danger 
of being lost through ignorance, and, therefore, of little value 
or merit, like any other virtue that is virtuous only because it 
has never been tempted. It is not necessary to give examples. 
It is the duty of parents to instruct the young and thereby 
fortify them against a fall into a terrible sin through igno- 
rance. This volume is intended to be placed in the hands of 
the innocent by their parents. It was written both from a peda- 
gogical and from a medical point of view. 

That portion of this work relating more particularly to 
health and hygiene is based on the principle that "whatever 
lowers the vital force of a well person will never restore the 
vital force of a sick one." Every disease is the result of a 



PREFACE. 

violation of some natural law. Every such violation is a 
wrong, and as an addition of two negative quantities cannot 
make an affirmative, so two wrongs can never make a right. 
This is common sense, and the following fundamental principles 
are becoming daily more and more recognized by enlightened 
people both in and out of the medical profession: 

Poisons are not remedies. 

Symptoms and pains are not disease, biit only the 
messengers bringing warning of disease to the brain. 
To silence the messengers and leave the disease 
unchecked is folly. 

Prevention is better than cure. The great ele- 
ments of prevention are: (i) Knowledge; (2) clean- 
liness, physical as well as moral and mental; (3) 
hygiene and sanitation. 

Mind and thought influence the bodily health no less 
than physical and material conditions. A healthy 
body needs a healthy mind, and a healthy mind cannot 
exist without a healthy body. 

The illustrations will prove an especially valuable feature. 
The more important ones were made by Ruth Blake, who is 
not only a thorough artist but a fully qualified medical prac- 
titioner. Nothing like her work has ever before been pre- 
sented in a volume intended for general circulation. 

That this book may help to destroy ignorance, that terrible 
breeder of evil and suffering, and thereby bring happiness 
and sunshine into every home, is the earnest desire of 

The Publishers. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 



PART L— LIFE AND SEX. 

Page 

Offspring 9 

Sex 14 

The Sex of Plants 16 

The Sex of Animals 18 

The Sexual Organs of the Human Being 20 

Puberty. 25 

Sexual Passion 28 

Conception and Gestation 30 

The Mother During Pregnancy 34 

Antenatal Influences and Heredity 37 

Childbirth .- ... 40 

Conjugal Love. 42 

Illicit Intercourse 47 

Self-Abuse 50 

Know Thyself 53 

The Ideal Man 55 

The Ideal Woman 57 

Painless Childbirth 60 

A Theory as to the Sex of Offspring 67 

PART II.— HUMAN CREATION. 

The Principle of Life 81 

The Dominant Power of Life 92 

The Temple of the Soul 103 

The Temple of the Soul (Continued) 129 

The Unfolding of Womanhood 155 

The Fulfillment of the Law , 167 

The Fruits of Fulfillment 178 

Home and Homemaking 188 

Mature Life 204 



TABLE OF CO NTENTS. 

PART III.— NEW TOCOLOGY. 

Chapter - Page 

I. Menstruation 219 

II. The Marriage Relation 232 

III. Conception and Pre-natal Culture 241 

IV. Childbirth 266 

V. Hygiene of Infancy 277 

VI. Development from Birth to Puberty 296 

VII. Disorders of Infancy and Childhood 307 

VIII. Afflictions Peculiar to Women 331 



PART IV.— HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 

I. The Relation of Health to Beauty 348 

II. Long Life Not a Secret 352 

III. "Breath is Life" 361 

IV. How, When and What to Eat 367 

V. Sleep and the Bath 376 



PART I. 

LIFE, SEX, 

AND THE 

REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 

BY 

ELI F. BROWN, M. S., M. D. 



PART L 




CHAPTER I. 
• Offspring. 

IFE is the supreme thing; health and vigor are 
its full and happy expression. To know one's 
self and to conform to the vital laws which con- 
trol personal existence and well-being, is the part 
of prudence and wisdom. Ignorance is always a 
source of danger; blind experience is an extremely unsatisfac-' 
tory leader; carelessness is reckless and treacherous; the vio- 
lation of the laws of life, whether willful or not, is fatal alike 
to the innocent and the foolish. 

In the realm of life, there is no escape from the hurtful 
results of evil acts; no atonement is to be found for vital sins. 
To the transgressor nature is relentless and pitiless, neither 
forgetting nor forgiving an injury: who violates must suffer. 
It is no less true that conformity to the behests of life increases 
life: to him who has, and who rightly uses, more and more 
abundant life is given. Health flushes the cheek of him who 
lives well, nerves his arm with strength, endows his brain and 
soul with force, fills his daily cup with refreshing cheerfulness 
and vigor. Who obeys, receives new gifts. 

No other feature of one's organism is more deeply vital, 
none more impressive in its influence upon the vigor, health 
and happiness of the individual, than is the reproductive func- 
tion, the sexual part. Yet no other organs, it would seem, are 
more often shamefully abused; about no other part is there, 
usually, such gross ignorance. Comparatively few of those 
who are otherwise intelligent and prudent live wisely in their 
sexual life. Unfortunately, an unwarranted prudishness 
restricts the freedom of instruction in regard to the sexual 



10 OFFSPRING. 

element in life. So forcible is this reserve that parents gener- 
ally ignore the instruction of their childjen respecting the sex- 
ual nature. Sons grow to young manhood and daughters enter 
womanhood in ignorance of the purpose and proper care of 
their sexual parts, excepting as they learn about sex and the 
sexual organs in chance and uncertain ways from their own 
unguided feelings and observations, or from such doubtful 
sources of information as servants and evil-minded compan- 
ions. Thus it is that parents, who are anxious and earnest for 
the greatest welfare of their children, permit a false idea of 
modesty to blind them to some of the simplest and most vital 
needs in the education of the young beings intrusted to their 
care and dependent upon them for intelligent guidance. 

As good health is the choicest of all blessings and the most 
'urgent need of the individual in the stirring affairs of life; as 
virtue and chastity are the most sacred of all moral attributes, 
it would seem that the tender boy who is soon to become a 
man, and the delicate girl who is early to enter into the won- 
ders of womanhood, should be well informed about sex, so 
that these offspring of the home, the hopes of the future, may 
escape the misfortunes of misplaced confidence, of accident, 
of ignorance and of blind impulse. 

Let the young man endow himself with that definite infor- 
mation of his own being which shall help to form a proper 
basis for correct judgment, for self-control, and for manly and 
upright conduct; let the young woman know fully and forcibly 
the peculiar character of her feminine nature, that she may 
cherish her virtue as the rarest jewel of her crown, and appre- 
ciate both the blessings and dangers that attend her sexual 
life. There is no safety for either man or woman save in 
definite information, and this can be acquired only by a care- 
ful consideration of what has been ascertained to be true in 
human experience. 

Every living thing begins its career in life as a cell which 
forms a part of the parent's body. After a season of prepara- 
tion, during which time it remains attached to its mother, the 
embryo which has been formed from the original cell is sep- 



OFFSPRING. 11 

arated from her and begins its existence as an individual living 
being. 

The charactef'of the offspring is determined so definitely 
by its parentage, that, during its whole life, it must remain like 
its parent in many important respects. This natural likeness 
of the offspring to the body which produces it, preserves the 
various kinds of species of creatures among living things. 
There is no vital law more universal and unchangeable than 
this law of transmission of sameness of kind, which governs 
the nature of offspring and perpetuates the various types of 
vital existence. 

The reason why the young being is of the same kind as its 
parent is simply because the embryo is a portion of the 
mother's body; hence, as it grows, it remains the same in 
kind, and must ever continue to be like the original body from 
which, as a part, is was derived. Any familiar class of living 
beings will furnish illustrations of the truth of this law. Thus 
a grain of Indian corn is formed by the parent plant as a part 
of itself; when this grain is ripe and is planted, it grows, and, 
in growing, must produce a plant like the parent corn plant: it 
cannot become wheat, nor can it be oats. The tgg of the 
goose is formed by the mother bird from a part of herself; 
when this tgg is hatched, the young bird is necessarily a 
goose; it cannot be a robin, nor is it possible for it to be an 
eagle. The calf, born of the common cow, is formed by the 
mother from a part of herself; when it is separated from her 
by birth, it must be of the cow kind; it cannot be a deer, nor 
can it be a bear. So, also, the child of human parents is 
formed by its mother from a portion of herself and must be a 
human being like her; it cannot be anything else. 

All living things die. There is nothing more certain than 
that every plant and every animal which has fulfilled its 
allotted season of life must disappear by death. Indi\aduals 
perish, yet the race or species is continued by the origin and 
life of other individuals of the same kind. These new things 
take the place of such as die, and, in turn produce others like 
themselves, and then pass away by death. 



18 OFFSPRING. 

In the world of plants, the reproduction or succession of 
individuals is accomplished chiefly by the forrnation and 
growth of seeds. Each seed is made by a parent plant, and 
contains within itself some nourishment together with a living 
germ. This germ is really a tiny plant, ready to begin to 
grow as a separate plant under suitable conditions for such 
growth. Thus, if the seed is properly planted in the soil, the 
moisture and warmth of the earth cause the embryo within the 
seed to begin to grow. All plants which produce seeds have 
certain parts of themselves which perform this important duty. 
These parts are the flowers which the plant bears, often so 
noticeable for their sweetness and beauty. The showy portions 
of the flower soon drop away, but a part, called the pistil, still 
clings to the parent stem and perfects the seeds. The stamens 
and pistils of the flowers are properly called the organs of 
reproduction of the plant, for they are designed to make the 
seeds which are the plant's offspring. ' These parts of the 
flower are to the plant what the sexual organs are to animals. 

In many ways the lowest kinds of animals resemble plants, 
and the reproduction of such animals is often as simple as the 
formation of seeds and buds by plants. In some of the very 
lowest kinds, the adult or fully grown animal simply divides 
itself into separate parts, and each of these portions becomes 
a new individual which grows to maturity, to be divided again 
and again into new and distinct individuals. In other cases 
among the lower animals, the young are derived from the 
parent bodies as new buds and bulbs are formed by some kinds 
of plants. These "buds," on being separated from the mother 
animal, grow as distinct individuals, or, it may be, they remain 
attached to the parent stock and grow as branches do upon 
trees, thus forming a cluster or colony of animals. Such ani- 
mals are little more than plants, and are wanting in all of those 
distinctive features of animated bodies which distinguish the 
higher animals from the other forms of creation. 

In animals such as fishes and birds, with few exceptions, 
the female forms eggs within herself, which correspond pre- 
cisely to the seeds formed by plants. An egg, like a seed, 



OFFSPRING, 13 

contains a living germ, the same in kind as its parent, and, 
also, nourishment for the early growth of this germ or embryo. 
During the process of hatching a bird's tgg^ the embryo 
within the &gg becomes a young bird, which breaks from the 
shell at the appointed time, quite able to begin life on its own 
account. 

In animals of the highest orders, among which the human 
being is included, the ^gg is retained within the mother's body 
until the young animal is ready to be born alive, after which it 
is nourished for a brief season by the mother's milk. All such 
animals are called mammals because they nurse their young, 
and the mother is called the mamma. 

The human being is not unlike the other mammals in these 
respects, excepting that the human offspring is less strong 
after birth and needs the attention of its mother for a much 
longer time before it is able to care for itself in the world. 
However greatly man may excel the brute in mental and moral 
endowment, the human being is not otherwise an exception in 
the animal world, but is like other mammals in all essential 
respects, subject to the same laws of life, health, development 
and reproduction. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER II. 




Sex. 

HAS been stated, the offspring is derived from 
its parents and is designed to continue the species, 
or kind of being, to which it belongs. Thus a 
living being produces other living beings; out of 
life, life comes. This act of a living being in 
producing from itself a living offspring is what is meant by 
sexual function, and the parts of the body engaged in per- 
forming this important and wonderful process are the sexual 
organs. 

In all the higher classes of animals, and in most of the 
plants as well, the production of offspring requires the action 
of two sets of sexual organs, the one female, the other male. 
Neither set is capable of acting alone: each set must con- 
tribute its share in forming the germ or embryo which finally 
becomes the new individual. In all the highest kinds of ani- 
mals, these different sexual organs, when fully developed, are 
in different individuals, so that two individuals, one male, the 
other female, are really the parents of every offspring. The 
male is called the father, or papa; the female is known as the 
mother, or mamma. 

The difference between the father and mother is what is 
meant by sex. She from whose body the young being is born 
is the mother; she is female; she possesses the female sexual 
organs; she furnishes the original cell which becomes the 
embryo, and she nourishes this embryo as a part of herself 
until it is ready to begin life as a separate animal. The 
father, or male, furnishes a cell from his sexual organs, which 
cqH is at once separated from him and is put into the cell 
within the mother's body, so that the original cell of the 

14 



SEX. 16 

mother becomes a double thing, being now a part of herself 
and containing a portion of the father. After contributing 
this germinal element to the female, the male has nothing 
more to do in forming the young being. He is the father, 
however; he is male; he possesses the male sexual organs. 
Both are truly the parents of the offspring, and, as its growth 
is made from two parts, one from each of them, the new being 
is not an exact repetition of either parent, but is like them 
both. While the offspring may show more marks of resem- 
blance to the one or the other, it necessarily has the character 
of both parents blended in its own. 

It would seem that the mother does much more toward pro- 
ducing the offspring than the father does. This is true. She 
does vastly more in developing the embryo by the nourishment 
which she furnishes to it from her ow^n blood, and by the 
impressions which her mental conditions make upon the sensi- 
tive organism of the offspring while it is yet a part of herself. 
But the thing which she is thus developing — the original cell 
which becomes the embryo — is so surely a combination of both 
parents, and the embryo formed from it is also so certainly a 
growth of both these elements in one, that the father's charac- 
teristics are retained and grow just as do those of the mother, 
and are quite as fully shown in the offspring as hers. Thus a 
child having a negro mother and a white father would be 
neither negro like its mother nor white like its father, but 
would combine in itself, both physically and mentally, the 
marks of each in about an equal degree of prominence. 



PART L 




CHAPTER III. 
The Sex of Plants. 

"Flower in the crannied'wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies, 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower ; but could I understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

— Tennyson. 

HE sexual organs of plants are usually more easily 
seen and understood than are those of animals. 
For this reason it may be well to examine their 
arrangement and learn their action upon one 
another in producing the seeds by which new 
plants are derived. A cluster of common cherry blossoms 
will serve for the purpose. In the interior of any one of 
these blossoms there is a circle of small club-like parts called 
stamens. Each stamen consists of a slender stem below, 
at the upper end of which stem there is a tiny bag or cavity, 
filled, when ripe, with a yellowish dust. When the stem is 
thoroughly ripened, this bag bursts open, and the dust from 
within is scattered about the stamen, and may be borne many 
feet away by the wind. This dust from the stamen is called 
pollen. Although the pollen seems to be only a kind of dust, 
it is true that every grain of this dust is a living cell from the 
stamen, and, while yet alive, it may drop upon the open 
mouth of a pistil to aid in making a seed. These stamens are 
the male organs of the flower, and the pollen cells are 
designed to act upon the cells contained within the female 
organs. 

Just within the circle of stamens, and occupying the center 

16 



SEX. 17 

of the blossom, is the part known as the pistil. This is the 
female organ. The pistil has a large, full part at the lower 
end, called the ovary, inside of which are the ovules or cells 
which are to become the seeds.. A tube leads up from the 
ovary and opens at the outer end as a kind of tiny mouth, the 
lips of which are wet with a dewy moisture. 

Both the stamens, as male organs, and the pistils, as 
female organs, help in forming the embryo in the seeds. ^ 
Thus a live grain, of pollen frorn the stamens must fall on the 
wet lips of the pistil, and, by growing there for a brief season, 
send its tiny rootlet down into the ovary to the tender ovules 
there inclosed. If, now, the rootlet of the pollen cell deposits 
a part of itself within one of the ovules, the latter will form a 
seed and contain an embryo which will grow to be a plant. 
But if this does not occur, the ovule cannot become a seed. 
This action of the pollen cell on the ovules is called fertiliza- 
tion. After fertilization is performed, the stamens can do 
no more toward forming the seeds; they wither away. But 
the pistils, with their precious contents, remain fastened to the 
stem and are nourished by the plant until the seeds within 
the pistils are ripe and perfect. The ripened pistil is the fruit 
of the plant. If a seed from the ripe pistil is properly planted, 
the embryo within grows and begins to form a new plant like 
the parent plants. 

This is, in brief, the action of the sexual organs of plants 
upon one another in reproduction. 

1 In some kinds of plants, the flowers containing the stamens are on 
separate plants from those which contain the pistils. Such a plant as bears 
only stamens in its flowers is called staminate. It is really a male plant, 
and cannot bear fruit. The plant whose flowers bear pistils only, is called 
pistilate. It is a female plant. It can bear fruit provided the pollen comes 
to it from some male plant of its kind. In some kinds of plants, the 
stamens and pistils are in separate flowers, with both kinds of flowers 
upon the same plant. In most cases, however, each flower contains both 
stamens and pistils. 



PART I. 




CHAPTER IV. 
The Sex of Animals. 

HE sexual organs of animals are, usually, less 
easily examined than are those of plants, for they 
are often quite hidden within the animal's body. 
But the same general plan exists in animals as in 
plants. In any case, the organs of the male are 
so constructed that they supply sperm-cells for fertilizing 
or impregnating the germ-cells of the female. These cells 
from the male are to be compared with the pollen cells of 
stamens, except that they come off from the male in a 
kind of liquid called semen, which the male puts into the 
organs of the female. The wind cannot carry this fluid, as it 
does the pollen dust, so that it is necessary for the organs of 
the male animal to enter the organs of the female, or to come 
into close contact with them, in order that the semen may 
reach the cells of the female.^ 

These living cells, sperms as they are called by some wri- 
ters, from the male animal, have a long name. They are 
called spermatozoa. They, like the pollen, are simply living 
cells thrown off from the father, and are a necessary part in 
forming the beginning of the embryo that becomes the off- 
spring. '^ 

^ This is not true of fishes, however. The spawn and milt from the 
female and male fishes are thrown into the water by each and the two 
kinds of germs meet in the water outside of and away from the bodies of 
both parents. 

2 The spermatozoa are extremely minute cells, usually not exceeding 
gJo of an inch in length. Each cell has an enlarged triangular portion, 
to which there is attached a fine hair-like part. By its wave-like motion, 
the cell has the appearance of some kinds of animalcules. It is, however, 
simply a cell, having a kind of motion common to many other forms of 
germinal matter, both vegetable and animal. 

18. 



THE SEX OF ANIMALS. 19 

The female organs are to be compared with the pistils of 
the flower. They are open to receive the male organs, or, at 
least, to receive the semen. These female organs contain, at 
some place within themselves, the ovaries which have in them 
the cells, or ova (eggs), that are to become embryos. The 
spermatozoa must find their way to these cells of the ovary, 
and, by entering them, furnish the element from the father 
that aids in forming the embryo. This is the purpose of 
sexual intercourse. 

With this brief statement of the sexual relations of animals 
in general, this portion of the text closes. The remaining 
part treats particularly of the sexual organization of the human 
being, both male and female. 

It is supposed by the author that the reader has, at least, 
learned the ordinary facts of human anatomy, physiology and 
hygiene, as they are presented in the elementary text-books 
of the common schools; hence, all details of the structure and 
use of the other parts of the body are omitted here. 



PART L 




CHAPTER V. 
The Sexual Organs of the Human Being. 

HE sexual organs of the female occupy the front 
lower portion of the abdomen and the central part 
of the pelvic cavity. The colon passes behind 
these organs, while the bladder is placed in front 
of them. The principal divisions of this set of 
organs are the vagina, the uterus, the ovaries, and Fallopian 
tubes. The vagina is a soft, muscular tube, more than an 
inch in diameter, and four or more inches in length. It 
opens out of the body through the vulva, which forms a 
mouth for it. At the outermost part of the vagina, a tube from 
the bladder also opens into the vulva. The innermost part of 
the vagina is connected with the uterus, for which cavity the 
vagina forms a passage-way. The walls or sides of the vagina 
rest against each other, closing the passage, except as they 
are pressed apart by the presence of something in the vagina; 
the walls are formed chiefly of muscle and are lined with 
mucous membrane. 

The uterus is a hollow, muscular body about one-third as 
large as the closed fist, and has the shape of a flattened pear. 
It is above the vagina, with the tapering portion pointing 
downward and backward, and extending into the upper part of 
the vagina. The walls of the uterus are thick and strong. 
The cavity within is small and flat, somewhat triangular in 
form, and is lined with delicate mucous membrane. The neck 
of the uterus is about as large around as the thumb, and the 
opening through this portion into the interior of the uterus is 
not much greater in size than a common goose-quill. The 
main cavity of the uterus is connected with the ovaries, one 

20 



THE SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE HUMAN BEING. 21 

on each side, by means of minute tubes called the Fallopian 
tubes. The uterus is the part in which conception occurs and 
in which the child is formed. Although so small at first, if 
conception occurs the uterus increases in size to accommodate 
the growth of the child within, and, after the birth of the off- 
spring, the uterus returns to its former size again. The uterus 
is supplied with a vast number of blood-vessels, so that during 
pregnancy the young child receives its nourishment from the 
mother's blood through the blood-vessels that fill the lining 
membrane of the uterus. 

The ovaries are two in number, one on each side of the 
uterus, at a distance of three or four inches away. This 
places an ovary in each side of the abdomen near the groin. 
They are joined with the outside of the uterus by broad liga- 
ments which aid in holding both them and the uterus in posi- 





Fig. I.;— The human ovum, greatly enlarged. 

{a) The Graafian vesicle enclosing the ovum, (b) The free ovum escaping 

and ready for impregnation. 

tion, and they are also connected with the interior of the 
uterus by means of the Fallopian tubes. Each ovary is a 
roundish, flattened body, about an inch and a half in length, 
less than an inch in width, and about half an inch in thick- 
ness. The ovaries are the peculiar and important division of 
the sexual organs of the female; in them are formed the germ- 
cells from which offspring is formed. On close examination, 
each ovary is found to produce and to contain a great number 
of cells or vesicles. These are really minute ova (eggs), called 
the Graafiafi vesicles. Each of these vesicles is composed of 
a sac or covering, within which is a germinal or embr3^onic 
cell (Fig. i). The larger of these vesicles vary in number 



32 THE SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE HUMAN BEING. 

from ten to twenty, and in size from that of a grain of mus- 
tard-seed to that of a pea, while there are great numbers of 
still smaller and less mature ova in the rrrass of the ovary. 

At the time of each monthly period a large, ripe Graafian ves- 
icle bursts, and the ovum thus set free from the ovary makes its 
way through the Fallopian tubes into the uterus; this ovum 
is retained in the tube and in the cavity of the uterus for 
several days, during which time it may become impregnated 



(2V-- 




— (J) 



Fig. 2a. — The testicle, natural size, scrotum partially cut away, (i) Cut 
edge of the scrotum. (2) Body of testicle: (3) Spermatic cord. 
(4) Spermatic artery. 



and form an embryo in the uterus. If not impregnated, it passes 
out with the menstrual flow, or is destroyed and absorbed. 

The Fallopian tubes are two slender tubes which extend 
from the upper portion of each side of the uterus to the 
ovaries. The outer ends of these tubes are singularly fringed 
and made to connect with each ovary in such a way that the ova 
i^rom the ovary may pass through these tubes into the uterus. 

The male sexual organs are somewhat more simpje and are 
more nearly external than are those of the female. They 



THE SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE HUMAN BEING. 23 

consist of the testicles with their tubes and the member with its 
glands (Fig. 2a). These testicles are the peculiar and impor- 
tant sexual organs of the male, for it is their purpose to 
produce the spermatozoa, or sperm-cells. The testicles are two 
in number. They are firm, oval glands, about the size, and 
somewhat the shape, of small hen-eggs. They are suspended 
from the lower front portion of the body and are inclosed by 
the scrotum. The interior of the testicle is a delicate and 
complicated glandular structure. From each testicle there is 



...(Si 




Fig. 2b.— A section through the testicles. 

(i) Network of seminal tubes within the testicle. (2) Union of seminal 

tubes. (3) Duct leading to seminal sacs. 



a minute tube extending from the inner portion of the testicle, 
through the spermatic cord, to the seminal sacs, which form 
minute reservoirs just below and behind the bladder. The 
seminal sacs are connected by tubes with the urethra. (See 
Figs. 2a and 2b.) 

The spermatozoa grow in the delicate structure of which 
the interior of the testicle is formed, and, when they mature, 
they become detached and make their way through the wind- 
ing tube which conveys them to the seminal sacs. Here they 



THE SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE HUMAN BEING. 



collect in great numbers, ready to be thrown out through the 
urethra in time of sexual intercourse. (See Fig. 2c.) 

The member extends from the body just above the scrotum. 
It is an inch or more in diameter and five or more inches in 
length. Through the member extends a tube called the urethra, 







^^ 



^I. 2, 



Fig. 2c. The spermatozoa, greatly enlarged. 
3) Different stages of development of the sperm cells within their 
sacs. (4, 5) Different views of the free cells. 



which, by its internal connections, forms an outlet for the urine 
from the bladder and the semen from the seminal sacs. 

The semen is a thin, milk-like fluid, supplied in part from 
the testicles and in part from the glands about the neck of the 
bladder and elsewhere upon the member. The spermatozoa 
mingle with the semen and are carried by it. 



PART L 




CHAPTER VI. 
Puberty. 

' If you neglect the education of your daughters, you are preparing shame 
for your own family, and unhappiness for the houses into which thsy 
may enter." — Chinese Doctrine. 



HE child at time of its birth is extremely deli- 
cate and immature in all of its parts. The bones 
are not hard, the teeth are yet beneath the gums, 
the muscles are pale and soft, the skull is only 
partially formed, and the brain and spinal cord are 
little more than a mass of sensitive jelly. Many years must 
pass during which the parts are to grow in size and strength 
before the child becomes an adult or fully formed person. 
This necessary development pertains to the sexual organs as 
well as to the brain or other parts. Girls develop somewhat 
more rapidly than boys, so that the girl becomes a woman at 
an earlier age than the boy becomes a man. 

The progress from infancy, through girlhood to woman- 
hood, is a gradual one, yet a very decided change occurs about 
the twelfth year of the girl's life. This is the change which 
decides her puberty or indicates such a development of her 
sexual organs as to make her capable of bearing children. It 
is at this time that the mammary glands of the girl become 
enlarged and the ovaries begin to develop the ova regularly 
each month. The bursting of the ripened ovum in an ovary 
every twenty-eight days is called the "monthly period" of the 
woman, and she is said to menstruate. At the time of men- 
struation, there is more or less griping pain in the region of 
the ovaries, and a flow of mucus and blood from the lining 
membrane of the uterus. This flow is a real hemorrhage, and, 

25 



26 PUBERTY. 

though it occurs from natural causes and should produce no 
alarm, it is not a trifling matter. During the time of this men- 
strual discharge, the female should take extra care of herself; 
she should not work hard, nor exercise excessively; she should 
not become greatly excited in any manner; she should avoid 
getting wet or taking cold; if possibk to do so, she should 
take only moderate exercise and otherwise remain quiet and 
wait until the flow ceases. Usually it continues from two to 
five days. From the time the Ovum is ruptured in the ovary, 
which occurence brings on menstruation, until five or six days 
after the monthly period closes, the ovum is likely to be pres- 
ent in the uterus or Fallopian tubes, and, for this reason, con- 
ception occurs most frequently at or near the time of the 
menstrual flow of the female. This monthly act of the ovaries 
in producing ova ceases temporarily during pregnancy, and 
stops wholly as the woman reaches the age of forty-five or 
fifty years. 

The boy passes gradually and somewhat more slowly from 
boyhood to manhood, and has at no time such a decided 
change as that just described as occurring to the girl. But, at 
the age of fourteen, or later, his countenance begins to lose its 
boyish cast, his beard commences its growth, his shoulders 
broaden, his chest increases in capacity, his voice becomes 
more masculine, and his sexual organs become more active. 
At this time the testicles begin to form spermatozoa, and he 
might now be' the father of a child. This is his season of 
puberty. 

These changes which occur in the sexual functions at 
puberty are very marked, also, in their influence upon the mind 
of the person; in fact, the individual is passing through a sea- 
son of change and uncertainty, in which the foundations of the 
whole organism are being reconstructed. Both the boy and the 
girl are unusually sensitive at this time: the boy is more easily 
embarrassed, he is restless and unsatisfied; the girl is more 
sentimental. Both ought to receive the kindest of treatment 
and the exercise of the greatest of patience from parents and 
teachers. Both find themselves possessed of new and strange 



PUBERTY. 27 

powers. Both are disposed to erratic behavior; they are liable 
to go astray in conduct and to commit fatal mistakes. 

Any excitement of the sexual oVgans before puberty cannot 
be other than extremely harmful, and any excitement of them 
during this season of change is equally unwise. 

Although puberty is passed at the early age of twelve and 
fourteen, neither the girl nor the boy gains full growth and 
maturity of parts until twenty or more years of age. Before 
the young woman has fully completed her own development, 
she ought not to become the mother of a child. The bearing 
of offspring is not childish sport, but is the most serious and 
responsible function of the strong and mature woman. To 
bear a vigorous child without injury to herself, and to care for 
it properly afterward, will tax all of her powers, of both mind 
and body, to the fullest extent, even under the most favorable 
conditions. Undoubtedly, therefore, the young man and 
woman will be prudent if they delay any possibility of becom- 
ing parents until the complete development of twenty or 
more years shall have prepared them for this great and sacred 
responsibility. 



PART L 



CHAPTER VII. 
Sexual Passion. 

"Seeing either sex alone 
Is half itself, and in true marriage lies 
Nor equal, nor unequal: each fulfills 
Defect in each, and always thought in thought, 
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow. 
The single pure and perfect animal, 
The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full stroke, Life." 

— Tennyson. 

If^INCE the continuance of the race is dependent 

upon the production of offspring, both sexes are 

j^ impelled to such acts of intercourse as will cause 

) jc%y this result. As a fact, this tendency exists between 
\J the sexes, both as an instinctive impulse and as an 
ardent desire which forms one of the strongest of animal appe- 
tites. So strong is this passion for sexual intercourse that it 
will, under some circumstances, overpower all other desires, 
and, temporarily, become the dominant motive of the person. 
Unless this tendency to indulgence is guided by intelligence and 
controlled by a firm moral nature, there is danger that this 
consuming appetite will lead the person into evil practices upon 
his own person, cause him to seek unwarranted means of grati- 
fication, or draw him into lewd associations and into licen- 
tious habits. 

Every natural appetite is doubtless for a good purpose, if it 
is rightly understood and properly used, but the lustful gratifi- 
cation of it is surely depraving. Thus, hunger for food is 
innocent and right in its purposes, yet gluttony in eating is 
hurtful and shameful. By yielding to the indulgence of any 




SEXUAL PASSION. 29 

apptdte, the habit of gratifying it is easily and firmly riveted 
upon the individual — a habit "whose chains are too light to be 
felt until they are too strong to be broken." 

No other appetite binds its victims down more despotically 
by their yielding to its impulses, than does the sexual passion 
bind down to depravity, the man or woman who gives it 
unbridled sway. Only by moderation, restraint, or reasonable 
control and avoidance of its temptations, may it be kept from 
producing disastrous dissipation. 

Each sex finds in the other that which it demands and 
craves. Each man sees in the woman of his choice that which 
his strong sexual powers make him want; each woman finds in 
the embraces of a man who suits her what her deep sexual 
nature compels her to desire. Nature has made each for the 
other. Neither, alone, is perfect. If they are mutually agree- 
able, they are drawn toward each other with impulses that 
form the strongest of attractions, bonds for which they will 
surrender all other ties of affection. This craving which they 
have for each other, and the relief which each can give the 
other in sexual intercourse, is as natural and as universal as the 
hunger for food. Herein is the great danger that is connected 
with this passion of their inmost nature; for, though it is a 
demand of their nature impelling them with great force, it is 
not an appetite whose requirements are to be gratified simply 
for the pleasure of the indulgence, but it is a powerful impulse 
of their being, which is to be controlled and used under the 
wisest judgment that can be brought to bear upon it. Health, 
strength, vigor, beauty, refinement, all lie in the direction of its 
control and rightful use, while pain, weakness, illness and 
grossness follow in the way of its immoderate and unlicensed 
sway. 



FART I. 



CHAPTER VIII. 




Conception and Gestation, 

HE union of the ovum of the female and th^ 

spermatozoa of the male produces what is known 

y?7«ws'\\ ^^ conception. This union is the beginning of a 

The ovum thus impregnated is arrested and 
retained in the cavity of the uterus. Here it is to remain 
and develop until the offspring therefrom is ready to be 
born. The outer surface of the embryo becomes intimately 
attached to the delicate lining of the uterus so that the blood 
of the mother circulates through the young being. Thus 
it is nourished and protected by the portions of her body 
which have been specially designed for the performance of 
this wonderful and beautiful work of the mother. She is truly 
an artist, creating and perfecting a living being — a human 
soul. 

Whether conception occurs unintentionally from careless 
intercourse, whether it is the result of lustful indulgence, or 
comes as a blessing in answer to the intention and desire of its 
parents for offspring, the consequences are the same — a new 
life is begun at the time of conception. Though this new 
being is, as yet, a part of its mother's very life, and is 
dependent absolutely on her blood for its nourishment and 
upon her protection for its continued existence; though it is 
only an embryo, wholly unconscious of its own life and destiny, 
nature regards it as a new being started upon its career. To 
destroy it is to kill the life of an individual. Its life is sacred 
in its mother's care. Its parents, male and female, cannot 
escape the responsibility of their act in bringing it into exist- 

30 



CONCEPTION AND GESTATION. 31 

ence. Upon them rests the duty of parents to protect, nourish 
and perfect this offspring of themselves — it is flesh of their 
flesh, and soul of their soul. 

The embryo grows and forms every part of itself after the 
pattern furnished by its parents. This model it cannot alter. 
Its growth is governed by the same vital law which controls 
the development of all other living beings, which law decides 
that every cell of every living thing must form itself like its 
parent cell, modified only by its peculiar surroundings and the 
use that it is to serve. The cells of which living matter is com- 
posed have the tendency to shape themselves, to select the 
proper material from the circulatory fluid by which they are 
nourished, and to build themselves into the various structures 
that are needed in the organic arrangement of the vital body 
which they compose. A person does not give his thought to 
the formation of his own body: he could not form his parts if 
he would. A more unerring intelligence, an ever vigilant eye 
and a hand of infinite skill are at work with the cells that build 
the heart, the brain, the bones, the muscles, the eye and all 
the other organs. This formation and renewal of parts goes 
on at all times and in almost all parts of the living animal 
body. As old and useless portions waste away, new cells take 
their places and reform the needed structure. This active 
formation of the new out of the old, this turning of dead sub- 
stance into vital forms, this process of self-growing, self-shap- 
ing, self-renewing, is what distinguishes living substance 
from dead matter. This is as near to life itself as human 
knowledge may approach. What the real essence of life is, 
v.hy and how the cells make and shape- themselves, man does 
not know, nor is it probable that it will ever be within the 
province of his limited mind to know. Certain it is, however. 
that this capacity and tendency for self-forming exists in the 
primitive cell from which the embryo is made. Through days 
and months the cellular substance grows and shapes itself into 
the required organs of the new being; although so simple at- 
first. It becomes more and more complex, and the various 
parts adjust themselves to one another according to the 



83 CONCEPTION AND GESTATION. 

different positions, structures and uses, until the whole is 
completed. 

During this interesting period, the mother is said to be 
pregnant, and the changes which the embryo undergoes are 
known as gestation. From the time conception occurs, the 
forces of the mother's organism are in part turned toward the 
development of her offspring. She is now two beings. She 
has her own vital powers to sustain and the new life to 
develop. Menstruation temporarily ceases. The mammary 
glands (breasts) prepare for producing milk. The lining 
membrane of the uterus becomes especially active, and, 
by its increase in extent, becomes so wrinkled that it soon 
completely encloses the tiny ovum within its folds. By this 
means the embryo is no longer exposed in the open cavity 
of the uterus, but is lodged in a sac formed around it by the 
lining of the uterus. As the ovum develops it requires 
nourishment; this it receives from the circulation of the blood 
in the mother's uterus. The outer membrane of the embryo 
becomes intimately joined with that which surrounds it, so 
that the mother's arterial blood brings it oxygen and building 
material, and her venous blood conveys away the waste prod- 
ucts caused by its growth. From the cell (Fig. i) of which 
the embryo at first consists, many other cells are formed. 

This mass of increasing cells divides into collections of 
slightly different kinds of cells which form two membranes; 
one of these gives rise to a skin and forms the other parts of 
the body from which are developed the spinal column and 
brain, the skeleton and the extremities; the other forms an 
inner, mucous membrane from which the digestive organs and 
lungs are formed. Between these two membranes, a circu- 
lation is established, and the heart, arteries and veins are 
constructed. By the third month of gestation, the placenta 
is formed, by which more direct connection between the 
embryo and the mother's blood is established and a complete 
circulation is permitted through the organs of the young 
child. By the fifth month the beating of the foetal heart can 
be heaid through the walls of the mother's abdomen, and the 



CONCEPTION AND GESTATION. 33 

motions of the young being be felt as it struggles within her 
body. Thus the shaping and growing continue through every 
phase of development, until what was a single cell at first has 
become the perfect child, with all its parts complete and 
ready for birth. The full period of gestation in woman requires 
two hundred and eighty days. 



PART L 



CHAPTER IX. 




The Mother During Pregnancy. 

HE development of the foetus requires that the 
uterus shall become enlarged accordingly. This 
occurs by the increase, in extent of all its parts, 
especially in the enlargement of the body of the 
uterus, by which portion the young child is sur- 
rounded. The muscular fibers appear to increase in length 
and width, and also in number; the circulatory vessels 
enlarge; the nerves and other parts accommodate them- 
selves to the gradual expansion of the structure. As the uterus 
and its contents become greater in size, the entire abdominal 
region of the mother becomes extended. 

This season is one of deep import to the mother, for in it 
she is fulfilling one of the supreme functions of woman and is 
sustaining one of the greatest of human trials. Two lives are 
dependent upon the proper completion of gestation and 
the successful birth of the offspring. She deserves from 
herself and from those about her the exercise of the greatest 
good judgment in taking care of herself. She should eat 
moderately of wholesome food, neither overtaxing -her 
digestive organs by eating too much, nor permitting herself 
to lose strength from need of nourishment. Her best diet will 
consist of the grains, vegetables and fruits; especially should 
she eat liberally and regularly of the ripe fruits^ in season, 

^ Some of the most healthy and beautiful children the author has known 
were born with but slight pain to the mother. In these cases the mothers 
ate almost exclusively of fruits and vegetables after the first two or three 
months of pregnancy. It is held to be true that while all the parts of the 
child will be formed as perfectly when the mother confines herself to a diet 
of fruits and vegetables as when she eats more abundantly of grains and 

34 



THE MOTHER DURING PREGNANCY. 35 

such as please her taste and agree with her digestion. A 
regular fruit diet will do more than anything else can do to 
prevent and relieve constipation. If she will eat properly 
she need not resort to the use of medicine. The pregnant 
woman is not necessarily a sick person because of her 
condition. She may be just as well and active during this 
period as at any other time of her life. If she takes proper 
exercise she will have sufficient appetite, and she need have 
no concern about not being able to eat enough; she will more 
often cause herself to be distressed from eating too much 
than from eating too little. 

The pregnant mother should dress with proper regard to 
her condition. While she should clothe herself comfortably 
as respects temperature, she should relieve herself of heavy 
clothing as much as possible, and especially alter such 
garments as in the least degree bind her body closely. Loose, 
light clothing about the abdominal regions is absolutely 
needful for both her own relief and to permit the enlargement 
and changes of position that must occur in these parts. Not 
only should the clothing be loose, but all its weight should 
be suspended from the shoulders. To attempt to hide or 
hinder the natural increase in the abdomen by means of the 
corset or closely fitting dresses, is to invite other troubles of 
much more serious character. Any tightening of the region 
of the waist must press the increasing organs down into the 
lower part of the abdomen, thereby causing much more 
deformity and prominence of this portion, and also making 

meats, the bones of the growing child do not become so hard and firm and 
hence birth is made much more easy for the mother. The author knew of 
one case in which a strong child weighing eight pounds was born of a very 
small mother with no pain during labor. There was the best of reason to 
believe that this very desirable result was due largely to the persistent fruit 
diet of the mother during the last six months of her pregnancy. Such 
a course is worthy of attention and trial, especially b}^ women who are 
delicate or who are under average size. Wheat is more rich in bone- 
^lardening substance than the most of the other bread-making grains are; 
iience while it is the best of foods under other circumstances, it is not the 
best for the mother who seeks an easy birth for her child. 



86 THE MOTHER DURING PREGNANCY. 

additional pressure upon all the organs within the abdomen 
and pelvis. Such a course cannot fail to deform the body 
more and to cause weakness and pain" in the back. 

The mother in her child-bearing should take proper 
exercise daily. It is only by reasonable and regular exercise 
that she can maintain the vigor of all her parts. She may 
walk, ride, work. She should be much in the open air and 
sunlight. She should avoid idleness, cheerlessness, distress 
and despondency as she would shun contagion, for they 
cannot but contribute toward making her condition worse. 
There is no better exercise than that of regular ordinary work 
and that of walking in the open air. Agreeable occupation, 
constant employment, busy cheerfulness, are the surest means 
of avoiding both mental and physical depression. She should 
not exercise excessively nor violently; she should avoid any 
sudden or heavy strain; she should avoid any great excite- 
ment; she should receive no sudden shock; she should be 
shielded from fright, anger or abuse, or from anything .else 
that endangers her life. Anyone who would do her the least 
violence, by word or deed, while she is in such a condition, is 
too brutal to be worthy to wear even the image of a human 
being. 



PART h 



CHAPTER X. 




Antenatal Influences and Heredity. 

* * * "Happy he 
With such a mother ! Faith in womankind 
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high 
Comes easy to him ; and tho' he trip and fall, 
He shall not blind his soul with clay." 

— Tennyson. 



EALTHY and beautiful children do not come into 
life as matters of accident, nor in any way as a 
miraculous work of the Creator, but they do come 
as the necessary result of favorable conditions of 
parentage. The mother may be'certain that dur- 
ing the months of her pregnancy she can do much toward pro 
ducing these desirable results in her child. So closely is the 
life of the offspring connected with her own, so sensitive is 
its growing organism, both physically and mentally, to her 
influences and conditions, that she exerts decided and lasting: 
effects upon its appearance, its disposition and the foundation 
of its character. She is developing a new body, and in great 
measure she is bringing into being a new soul. The health 
and beauty of her life will, in some degree, take hold of her 
unborn child; hei industry and energy will tend to affect it in 
like manner; her cheerfulness will, in part, create its pleasant 
and agreeable disposition; her virtue, in all ways, will 
strengthen its innate tendencies toward rectitude. On the 
other hand, her evil thoughts, her weaknesses, her ill-temper, 
her petulancy, her selfishness, her despondency, her immoral 
ways of every kind will cast their fatal shadows upon the life 
of the child she is bearing. In extreme cases it may be that 

37 



Z% ANTENATAL INFLUENCES AND HEREDITY. 

the tendency to murder will be inborn in the offspring, as a 
result of a mother's hatred toward its life while it is yet a 
part of her own. Let her understand that the child, in some 
degree, images her influence upon it for good or for evil during 
the period of gestation.^ 

There are tendencies, however, which are so strongly fixed 
by the transmission of deeply seated diseases from parents to 
their children, that these tendencies cannot be materially 
prevented by any course of influence that the mother may 
adopt to the contrary. In cases in which either or both of 
the parents have pulmonary consumption, or have a con- 
stitutional tendency to such disease, the disposition to the 
iame peculiar weakness descends to the child with a degree of 
certainty which makes it almost impossible for even the best 
of conditions of healthfulness to prevent a fatal development 
of the malady in the child. In like manner the tendency to 
insanity perpetuates itself through generations of offspring. 
In the same way cancer, scrofula, syphilis and other loath- 
some diseases in parents bear their bitter fruits in the 
innocent children bred from such a source. Intemperate 
habits in the parent tend to beget the same unbridled appetite 
in the child; thus the acquired appetite of the father may 
become the inborn and much more fatal tendency in the child. 
Idiocy of offspring frequently appears as the heavy curse 

1 "Birth marks" or "mother marks" are blemishes which discolor or 
deform the child, caused by some peculiar excitement of the mother during 
pregnancy. The most common form of such mark is the red spot of skin 
on the face or other part of the body. Much worse cases, occur, however, 
in which the child is deformed in shape, imperfect in its vocal apparatus 
or otherwise seriously marred. It may be that the in jiiry to the child takes 
the form of physical disease, mania, mental weakness, or idiocy. These 
unfortunate results are frequently traceable to the effect of some special 
nervous influence of the mother upon the child during her pregnancy. 
Such may be the effects of sudden fright, shock, impression from hideous 
scenes, fear of brutal treatment, worry over domestic affairs, anxiety for 
someone in danger, morbid thought, anger, jealousy, any of which may 
affect the mother's imagination so forcibly as to injure the sensitive 
organism of the child she is bearing, tending to cause physical blemish and 
deformity, or mental weakness and idiocy. 



ANTENATAL INFLUENCES OF HEREDITY. 39 

placed upon the children born of a drunken parent. The 
father may indulge in the use of tobacco or other narcotic 
poisons with seemingly but slight injury to himself, but the 
poisonous effect is so decided in its weakening influence upon 
his nervous system that his child, whether boy or girl, will 
probably prove to be a nervous wreck, in some cases fit only 
for the hospital or asylum. Poison tends to kill not only 
the user thereof, but the seed from such a source. There 
can be no "moderate" use of any poison which does not incur 
the penalty of this law of heredity. So, too, licentiousness, 
in any of its forms, in the parent, must implant the same 
depraving tendencies in the child. There is no escape from 
the operations of the immutable laws of life, and heredity is 
one of these which is alike faithful in its results, whether its 
fruits be good or evil. 

If, then, the mother would bear healthy and beautiful chil- 
dren, how absolutely necessary it must be that the g^rms 
she is developing shall come from a healthy and virtuous 
source. However excellent her own life, she cannot wholly 
change the evil tendencies which may be implanted in her 
offspring from a corrupt or diseased father. If she would 
have her offspring blessed with the choicest endowments of 
life, she must require of their father the health, chastity and 
excellence that she desires to see belong to her child. Virtue 
will beget virtue, health will generate health, no more surely 
than evil will breed viciousness, crime perpetuate itself in the 
child and disease corrupt the life of the young, being whose 
misfortune it is to be born of diseased parents. 



PART I 




CHAPTER XI. 
Childbirth. 



HEN the process of gestation is completed, the 
uterus contracts forcibly upon its contents and 
presses the child out by way of the vagina. 
This is called labor. It is usually attended with 
much pain, and is a severe trial to the mother's' 
strength and powers of endurance. The length of time 
required for labor depends upon various circumstances. Easy 
labor may be completed in thirty minutes, while in unfavor- 
able cases it may require many hours. During this great strain 
the mother should be attended by a competent physician, for 
her suffering and th^e risk of life to herself and to her offspring 
are too great to be entrusted to unskilled hands. After the 
birth of the child, the uterus closes tightly upon itself and 
stops the hemorrhage from its interior surface. It now grad- 
ually returns to its condition as before pregnancy occurred. 

The child, having been separated from its mother, begins 
to breathe, and its blood takes its proper course of circulation 
through the heart and lungs. 

As alieady stated, to bear a healthy and vigorous child, 
and to care for it properly afterward, taxes all the po\vers of 
the mature woman. Even under favorable conditions of 
health, size and strength, it is a great trial. If the mother is 
in good health; if she acts prudently during her pregnancy and 
meets no accident, she can pass through the trial and recover 
from it with no loss to her powers. It is much too great a 
strain, however, for a delicate woman to bear at any time, and 
it is too serious a burden to be frequently repeated even by 
the most vigorous. Carelessness and ill-judgment should 

40 



CHILDBIRTH. 41 

have no part in deciding when this trial shall come upon the 
mother. Many a fair woman, many a delicate, devoted 
mother, surrenders her life by too frequent childbirth. The 
father and friends may wonder why she grows ill, becomes 
weak and dies, leaving the saddest of sad things — motherless 
children. The father would better exercise some intelligence 
and judgment in his intercourse with her, and restrain his 
sexual passion in a reasonable manner, than to sacrifice the 
health and life of the mother of his chil(Jren. 

After the birth of a child, many months are required for 
the mother to regain the condition she maintained before 
pregnancy. Nature protects her for a season from the recur- 
rence of conception, by suppressing her menstruation. Surely 
she should wholly recover her own strength before engaging 
in a new trial of her vital energies. The same good judgment 
of parents should regulate the coming of their children into 
the family that controls and adjusts any of the more ordinary 
affairs of the home and of business. If, however, ignorance 
and carelessness are to determine in matters of such great 
importance, then parents who intrust their vital interests to 
such doubtful keeping must expect to abide by the results of 
their indifference; there is no special providence by which the 
consequences of their ill-judgment will be altered; the favors 
of fortune appear rather to follow from the exercise of care, 
and to bless those who act wisely. 



PART L 



CHAPTER XII. 
Conjugal Love. 

' For woman is not undevelopt man, 
But diverse : could we make her as the man, 
Sweet love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 
Not like to like, but like in difference. 
Yet in the long years likermust they grow; 
The man be more of woman, she of man ; 
He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; 
She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care ; 
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind. 
Until at last she set herself to man 
Like perfect music unto noble words ; 
And so these twain upon the skirts of Time 
Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers. 
Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, 
Self -reverent each and reverencing each, 
Distinct in individualities, 
But like each other e'en as those who love. 
Then comes the statelier Eden back to men: 
Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm; 
Then springs the crowning race of human kind. 
May these things be !" — Tennyson. 

ko : 

% O CLOSELY are the mind and body related, the 
one serving the other, each dependent upon the 
other, that it is impossible to regard intelligently 
) jf^\ the healthful condition of either without consider- 
KJ ing the connections and influences of the other. 
Undoubtedly, mental vigor depends very greatly, in fact 
almost wholly, upon the healthy and vigorous condition of the 
body. Physical weakness tends to establish corresponding 
mental frailty. On the other hand, proper intellectual activity 
and a healthy condition and exercise of the feelings affect 

43 . . 



\ 




CONJUGAL LOVE. 43 

bodily functions favorably, while dissipation of mental energy, 
excitement of passion, mania of every description, disappoint- 
ment and despondency, tend to destroy not only the inherent 
forces of the mind, but to engender corresponding physical 
weakness. 

One of the emotions which affect the vital organism most 
profoundly and forcibly is what is known as conjugal love. 
This love is inseparable from sexual function. Nature has 
planted this intense feeling in the human being, in order that 
the race shall be continued, and with the proper fulfillment of 
its design she has coupled some of the most precious interests 
of individual welfare and happiness. In its ideal purpose, con- 
jugal love would bind the man and woman into a unity of use- 
fulness, in which each devotedly serves the other, and together 
they produce offspring whom they foster with parental affec- 
tion and sacrifice. In this form, conjugal love is unselfish; it 
is beautiful and pure. This union of the male and female into 
one household, by reason of their love for each other and for 
their children, is the basis on which the home is founded, on 
which the interests of the family rest, and of all things human 
it is one of the most sacred. So strong is this bond of conjugal 
love between persons who are mutually attractive, that they 
will break all other ties of affection for this deeper and 
stronger passion. It is not strange, therefore, when this 
energy of one's being is fortunate in what it meets and binds 
to itself, that such a happy union must tend to maintain the 
health and to elevate the life of the person, and that its sus- 
taining power will illumine with some pleasure even the dark- 
est pathways of life. Nor is it unnatural that to cross this 
passion, to disappoint its hopes, to blast its attachments, will 
tend to strain the very foundations of such an unfortunate life. 
There is no fiction in a "broken heart. " So deeply seated may 
be the sorrow from disappointed love, that, in some cases, the 
'affliction breaks the vital cord or unseats the reason. 

Conjugal love properly leads toward civil marriage. In the 
pledge of personal devotion to each other, and of sacrifice for 
each other, which this bond of love establishes between man 



44 CONJUGAL LOVE. 

and woman, is found the genuine link on which marriage rests. 
Unquestionably marriage is an act of extremely serious impor- 
tance. It is a union for life, a union which carries with it the 
most intimate personal intercourse that is possible between 
two persons; it is a partnership in a home; it is the united 
parentage of children; it is a unity of career, and, to a great 
extent, the determination of a common destiny. It is a con- 
tract into which it is easy to step when opportunity offers, but 
from which it is most difficult to be released, however much 
the desire for separation. It is a bond within which it is 
extremely difficult to correct any of the mistakes made by 
haste in selecting a partner. It would certainly be wrong to 
base marriage wholly on sexual grounds, regardless of the 
fitness of the contracting parties for each other in other respects. 
The enduring happiness of the individuals and the permanent 
welfare of their union will rest almost wholly upon their con- 
geniality of character. Hence it is that the disposition, the 
tastes, the aims, worth of character, soundness of health, cor> 
rectness of habits, should all be thoroughly known of each by 
the other before marriage occurs, and the union be consume 
mated in the full light of such knowledge. In this connection 
let it be understood that the young woman has as great need 
to know and as much reason to demand that the man whom 
she is about to marry shall have the same personal tests of 
health, chastity and morality applied to himself, that he 
requires of her. With such fair and full understanding 
between the contracting parties before they enter marriage, 
there will be less of disappointment afterward. 

No civil contract, no human ordinance can in any way set 
aside or modify the operations of the laws that govern health 
or life; nor can it shield the violator of their decrees from the 
consequences of such infraction. Any excess or wrong, 
whether within wedlock or outside of it, must produce the 
same hurtful results. While marriage is a beautiful and whole- 
some institution of human enlightenment, it is not a recognized 
factor in the animal world to which mankind belongs. Simply 
because a woman and man are thus formally united is no 



CONJUGAL LOVE. 45 

license for their abuse of any vital function which the con- 
venience of their close relationship renders easy. Excessive 
intercourse, and the unwilling and unwished-for yielding of the 
person of the woman to the sexual desires of the man, are just 
as destructive within marriage as illicit prostitution can be 
without the cloak of marital sanction. Rather than yield her- 
self to painful intercourse or to the unbridled passion of her 
husband, she would better sacrifice her pledge, which such 
abuse from him has' forfeited, and escape from what may 
prove to be her own destruction. From a sanitary point of 
view, a woman's life and health are vastly more sacred than 
her plighted service can be to a gross, selfish or brutal hus- 
band. Nothing can more surely blight the life of a delicate 
and refined woman than to submit excessively to unpleasant or, 
painful sexual intercourse; nothing else can more deeply affect 
the nervous system; nothing else can more certainly arouse 
her repulsion and depress her vital forces. Even if the hus- 
band and wife are most affectionate, and their constant inter- 
course is mutually agreeable, any excess therein must tend to 
produce its evil consequences. Weakness, languor and pain 
must certainly follow excessive sexual excitement. The more 
delicate the health and strength of the person, the more sensi- 
tive the nervous organism, the more rapidly and surely must 
the individual yield to the depression and exhaustion from 
such excess. The failing health of the person from this cause 
may scarcely be noticed, but the pale and hollow cheek, the 
dull and staring eye, the indisposition to exertion, the wander- 
ing and vacant thought, the pain in the back and many other 
symptoms, all tell the fatal story. The husband, with his 
stronger physique, the bracing influence of his outdoor exer- 
cise, wonders that the woman he loves has lost the vivacity 
and vigor she possessed before marriage. Let him consider 
the sacrifice of nervous sensibility she makes as the partner in 
his intimate intercourse, and he may find the secret of her fail- 
ing strength and life. 

While the conveniences of marriage permit of excess and 
abuse as just indicated, it is true, in general, that marriage is a 



46 CONJUGAL LOVE. 

wholesome condition. Married men, as a class, live longer 
than the unmarried, and they are more free from some kinds 
of destructive diseases. Married women, notwithstanding the 
incidents of pregnancy and childbirth, are more healthy than 
the unmarried. This seeming favor toward the wedded is due, 
not alone to the quietyde and regularity which marriage gives 
to the sexual organization, but to the salutary effests that 
come from the greater incentives to effort which are aroused in 
those who become heads of families. Having something to 
work for and live for begets an energy which wards off weak- 
ness and illness. Added to these two favorable conditions of 
marriage are the many safeguards which a home, however 
humble it may be, affords for the protection of its inmates. 

If an individual is in fair health, free from constitutional 
disease, and has no physical deformity that might prevent the 
privileges and duties of a married life, it is better, from both 
sanitary and moral reasons, that such a person shall be mar- 
ried. If those who are thus united are well mated, if they 
have reasonable regard for the laws of their physical being, if 
they exercise some measure of coolness and temperance in 
their passion and are faithful in their love of each other, there 
is good reason to hope that the issue of their marriage will be 
favorable; they may expect to find some happiness in their 
intimate association. 



PART L 




CHAPTER XIII. 
Illicit Intercourse. 

"Virtue is the health, the good habit, the beauty, of the soul; vice is 
its disease, its bad habit, its deformity." — Plato. 

ONSIDERED upon strictly physiological grounds, 
there is no difference between the sexual union of 
persons who are married to each other and a sim- 
ilar connection between persons who do not sustain 
this relationship. But the social and moral inter- 
ests of enlightened people decide that, while marriage is 
wholesome, illicit intercourse of the sexes is one of the gross- 
est of evils. 

However wrong promiscuous intercourse may be, and for 
whatever reason it may be evil, such sexual union is equally so 
to both of the parties engaged in it. The man who seeks the 
indulgence, who sues for the gratification of his passions, is as 
guilty of wrong and is as much degraded by the act as is she 
who yields to his inducements and shares the corruption with 
him; in truth, there are reasons for considering him the more 
culpable, since he is usually the stronger of the two; he is the 
one who appears as the seducer, while her weakness and her 
necessity may to some extent excuse her. 

Offspring may occur from illicit intercourse as it does from 
the married relation. If conception does occur from illicit 
union, the undesired result rests the more heavily upon the 
woman, for upon her comes the burden of pregnancy and the 
immediate care of the child after birth. The fact that off- 
spring is not desired in illicit intercourse tends in such cases 
to lead to one of the most serious of evils — that of abortion, in 

47 



4>S ILLICIT INTERCOURSE. 

which case the pregnanr woman destroys by violence the life 
of the young being while it is yet a part of her own. Should 
the offspring of such intercourse be born, its innocent life is 
blasted by its disreputable birth; it is a child disowned by the 
man who brought it into being, and is a child having the best 
of reasons to be ashamed of its unworthy father. The pater- 
nity of offspring under such circumstances cannot excuse the 
man from the obligation which he owes to his own flesh and 
blood, nor justify his leaving the burden of its care to the 
unfortunate mother. The man who would attempt to rid him- 
self of such responsibility to his child and its welfare adds the 
grossest of cowardice and selfishness to a course already dis- 
reputable and unmanly. 

A wobian's choicest treasure is her virtue; in sacrificing her 
chastity she destroys the jewel of her crown; her purity is her 
strength and her protection. So forcibly does this view of 
woman's worth prevail in the enlightened world that it would 
be better for her to suffer unto death and render up her life in 
virtue than from any inducement whatever to enter upon a 
life of illicit intercourse. The sense of degradation which an 
unvirtuous life brings will, to a sensitive person, destroy all 
happiness, and tend even to destroy health and life as well. 

Promiscuous sexual intercourse is attended with the con- 
stant danger of contracting malignant diseases. Syphilis, 
which is one of the most contagious, as it is one of the most 
loathsome of disorders, is spread by such intercourse, and, for 
this reason, it is a common disease among persons of unclean 
sexual habits. A man or a woman who steps aside for a single 
act of illicit indulgence with one of promiscuous habit is liable 
to contract this contagion. Other diseases, some of which are 
of such acute nature that they produce destructive inflamma- 
tion of the sexual organs, are of frequent occurrence with per- 
sons of promiscuous sexual association. Anyone who gives 
way to his appetite for such union yields himself to a passion 
that will tend to take complete possession of his forces, bear- 
ing him into abusive indulgence, out of which he will get very 
little pleasure, but from which he will certainly receive 



ILLICIT INTERCOURSE. 49 

depression, pain and weakness. Even under the best*of treat- 
ment of one's self, the sexual organs and the passion which 
arises from their action will give more pain than comfort to the 
individual, and, seemingly, there Is no other set of organs to 
which abusive treatment Is more destructive. Irregularity of 
action, loss of control, weakness, pain and impotency are the 
undesirable and embarrassing consequences which follow abuse 
or excess. 



PART I 




CHAPTER XIV. 
Self^Abuse. 

"Our acts become our habits; our habits form our character; our char 
acter determines our destiny." 

^^ 

^OWEVER injurious excessive intercourse of a nat- 
ural kind may be, there is another form of sexual 
abuse which is much more destructive in its char- 
acter. Children, especially boys, early find that 
the external sexual organs are sensitive to touch, 
and they learn by accident or by evil example that these parts 
may be excited by artificial means, in much the same manner 
as that produced by natural intercourse. If once begun, this 
practice of excitement soon becomes a powerful habit, which 
tends directly to arrest and demoralize the development of 
both the body and the mind. These habits are commonly 
known as "self-abuse," "the solitary sin," or "masturbation." 
By whatever name the practice is known, or by what means it 
is accomplished, the physician and the intelligent parent know 
that the habit of such abuse is one among the most destructive 
vices to which any young person can become addicted. 

The unnatural act begets an unhealthy and excited condi- 
tion of the organs, so that the acts of abuse are liable to 
become more and more frequent and violent until serious con- 
ditions are produced. The effects of such a habit show them- 
selves on the organism of the person in the pale skin, hollow 
cheek, sunken and staring eyes, gaping mouth, stooping body, 
nervousness, palpitation of the heart, weakness of the back, 
and pain in the sexual organs. The person becomes dull in 
mind, shuns the society of others, and seeks indulgence in 

50 



SELF-ABUSE. 51 

secret. Such practices tend to arrest natural and manly 
development, and, by their injury to the sexual organization, 
they tend to unfit the adult for married life. In its worst 
forms, self-abuse is one of the chief causes of weak-mindedness 
and insanity. A large percentage of the hopelessly insane 
have been brought to their deplorable condition by self- 
abuse — a habit which they have indulged until they have lost 
all power of control and all sense of propriety or decency. 

What can be done to prevent or cure such an evil? This is 
one of the most difficult questions that can be asked, because 
of the peculiar nature of the evil and the force with which the 
habit binds its victims. Even if parents know of the existence 
of such a habit with a child, they will scarcely venture to try 
to arrest the practice. Harshness on their part, and the 
embarrassment of the child, tend to drive the young person 
into greater seclusion. The physician cannot reach the case, 
for medicine cannot arrest the practice. Apparently nothing 
but the person's own will can do anything to avoid the shame- 
fulness and destruction caused by the habit. If the individual 
can be definitely informed and forcibly impressed concerning 
the evil consequences of his habit, that it must surely result 
in pain and weakness, that it destroys all hope of a vigorous 
manhood, he may, by the exercise of his manly natufe, cease 
to commit these acts of violence to his own person, or, at 
least, may lessen their frequency. The sympathy and help of 
his parents can aid him in this. It is true, however, that, do 
whatever he will at restraint, moments of sexual excitement 
and desire will come which quite overpower his will. Coupled 
with this liability to form the habit of abuse is the natural tend- 
ency of the sexual organs to involuntary seminal emission, in 
which case, without excitement, other than that which occurs 
through the impressions made in dreams — through sexual 
scenes — the sexual organs act almost as they do in cases of 
actual intercourse. The more vigorous the individual, the 
more rich and stimulating the food, the more exciting his 
associations, the more active are his sexual organs and the 
more disposed are they to involuntary discharge. This is not 



52 SELF-ABUSE. 

a matter for concern or alarm, yet, in some measure, it leads 
to the practice of abuse. However difficult it is to prevent or 
to remedy the practice of self-abuse, it is certainly wise in par- 
ents to be on their guard and to protect their children as far 
as possible from the formation of such a depraving habit. 
Such practices are frequently learned from the bad example 
and corrupt suggestion of evil associates. 

The young person who is diligently and regularly engaged 
at some suitable work, or is interested in the pursuit of a course 
of study with his classes, or who spends his energies freely in 
vigorous sport with good companions, is much less disposed 
to sexual impropriety than is the lad who, from his idleness, is 
a prey to his own imaginations and suggestions, and who lacks 
wholesome means of direction for his physical energies. 

A simple diet, with less of flesh and more of cooling fruits, 
tends less to produce sexual excitement than do stimulating 
drinks and rich viands. The constant association of a young 
person with virtuous companions, free social intercourse with 
parents and friends at home, the reading of good books, the 
presence of ladies and gentlemen, the healthful activity of 
pleasant games and sports, ail direct the mind from base phys- 
ical suggestions and tend to develop a healthy tone of mind 
and a strong sense of refinement, which will do more than any- 
thing else can do to quicken the formation of virtuous char- 
acter. 

On the other hand, evil associations, lewd companions, 
books of doubtful character, scenes of revelry and license, 
details of crime, are among the surest forces that can debauch 
the young mind, by establishing a tendency toward low and 
sensual thought and taste. 

All the means that parents can employ, whether derived 
from wise parental influence in its general form or from intel- 
ligent physiological study — the regulation of diet, the influ- 
ence of good amusement, providing suitable employment — all 
are needed in promoting the sexual direction of their children. 



PART L 




CHAPTER XV. 
Know Thyself, 

'The more a man becomes addicted to sensual pleasure, the more com- 
pletely is he a slave. People may call him happy, but he pays his 
liberty for his delights, and sells himself for what he buys." 

— Seneca. 

T IS easy to preach, but not always so easy to 
practice, however good advice may be. It would 
seem, however, that there can be no safer doctrine 
V^(^ and course of conduct than that which is based on 
^'^-^ the study of self and the conscious effort of right 
self-direction. By reflection and observation, one may learn 
what his tendencies and habits are, and by proper effort he 
may do much toward establishing self-control rather than give 
reign to impulses. He can endeavor to divert himself from 
what is evidently wrong and injurious, and turn himself toward 
what is better and nobler. No other person can do this for 
him. Others may help or hinder, but it is only as he seizes 
hold of his own tendencies, and exerts himself consciously 
toward what is manly, that he can become better than he now 
is. Such effort tends to elevate; in the conscious effort to do 
better lie the surest and richest source of pure enjoyment, and 
the most helpful and ennobling of moral forces. On the other 
hand, a downward course will ever derange, depress, dissatisfy 
and destroy. Aim upward and press onward; seek the society 
of the good; emulate the example of the persons who are 
admired and loved because of their excellent qualities of char- 
acter. Speak more gently to associates; look upon the hope- 
ful and cheerful side of life; turn away from anger, fault-finding 
and envy. Life presents infinite possibilities of personal 
attainment, free to every zealous soul. 

53 



KNOW THYSELF, 

Cultivate bodily health by persistent exercise in the open 
air, by moderation in eating and drinking, by cleanliness, by 
proper amount of sleep and recreation. Give the lungs full 
breath, and cherish fresh air and sunshine as the richest of 
vital gifts to man. Dress with regard to judgment rather than 
in obedience to fashion. 

Regard the physical body as the delicate and beautiful 
instrument through which the soul acts, in which it dwells and 
upon whose vigor and healthfulness the spiritual part is depend- 
ent for its own vigor and health, upon which it depends for 
growth, for happiness and for power. 

Know, too, that the most sensitive and responsive of all 
physical parts are the sexual organs. Keep these within 
proper control; use them as nature intends and good judgment 
dictates. One can no more afford to abuse the sexual func- 
tion than he can afford to destroy the brain. Aim to live 
temperately, chastely virtuously. Shun dissipation; cleave 
to a noble purpose. 



PART L 




CHAPTER XVI. 
The Ideal Man, 

'Do noble things, not dream them, all day long; 
And so make life, death, and that vast forever. 
One grand, sweet song." — Charles Kingsley. 

^S THE plant turns unconsciously from darkness 
toward the light, so human ideality leads ever 
from that which is base toward that which is 
noble, from evil toward goodness, from the hide- 
ous toward the beautiful, from weakness toward 
power, and out of the happy combination of strength and 
beauty forms an idol of worship. 

In the ideal man these two factors rival each other for 
ascendency — his handsome personal appearance, his embodi- 
ment of force. 

In form and size, the model type of Caucasian is tall rather 
than short; slender rather than broad; erect in body; lithe and 
quick of movement rather than gross; strong, not weak; mus- 
cular, not fatty. His shoulders are square and well thrown 
back; his chest is full; his abdomen is not prominent; his 
limbs are straight and tapering; his walk is firm; his carriage 
is manly and graceful. 

In habits, such a man is clean in his person, temperate in 
eating and drinking, polite in his intercourse with others; he 
controls his temper, attends diligently to his own business, and 
is neither selfish nor "cheeky." His language is chaste and 
his conversation is free from vulgarity. He dresses well; he 
is interested in the important questions of the day; he is atten- 
tive to the opposite sex, and is regardful of their rights and 
privileges. 

55 



o6 THE IDEAL MAN. 

This ideal man marries, for he is a gallant and faithful 
lover; he has not destroyed his sexual vigor by evil practices, 
nor wasted it in sexual dissipation; he^ould not speak ill of 
any woman, much less would he descend to the unmanly plane 
of the seducer or debauchee. 

He becomes the father of children, owns a home as the 
anchor of his affections; he accords to the mistress of his 
heart the equality of headship in his family. He fosters and 
educates his family; he is not unmindful of the poor, and aids 
in benevolent and sanitary measures. 

Such a man fights no duels; he carries no concealed weap- 
ons; he seeks no quarrels; he keeps away from saloons; he is 
much at home; he pays his debts. 

As a result, life, to him, is worth living: he has something 
worthy for which to live. He has developed his own powers, 
endowed his mind with imperishable riches and escaped the 
pains of ill health and the wreck of dissipation. He is idolized 
by his family, admired and honored by all who know him 
well, surrounded by steadfast friends, and deserves the repu- 
tation he has established of being a noble and upright man. 



PART K 



CHAPTER XVlI 
The Ideal Woman. 

"May I reach 
That purest heaven ; be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony ; 
Enkindle generous ardor; feed pure love; 
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty ; 
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
And in diffusion .ever more intense. 
So shall I join the choir invisible, 
Whose music is the gladness of the world.' 



■George Eliot. 




)OMAN differs from man because she is a woman, 
yet, all in all, she is his equal and his worthy 
helpmate. She is less coarse, less strong, but 
has more of beauty, and is more refined. While 
man may cope with physical forces, bu-ffet the 
storm, fight battles, break the mountain, bridge the chasm, 
build the walls of a palace, she, as an artist molds her oppor- 
tunities to her purposes, creates fortune even out of accident or 
misfortune; by her command of unseen and subtle energies, 
she builds, beautifies and purifies the interior of the palace; 
she conserves the inestimable treasure of virtue. 

In stature, she is slightly less than her companion. She is 
neither large and angular nor diminCitive and rotund. She is 
not powerful, yet she is strong. Her movemencs are agile and 
graceful. Her features are fairly regular. Her face is more 
oval than his. Her skin is soft; her hair is rich and glossy; 
her health gives glow to her cheek, fullness to her form, elas- 

57 



58 THE IDEAL WOMAN. 

ticity to her step and ease to the erect and commanding car- 
riage of her person. Her chest is full, her waist undwarfed by- 
artifice, and her voice is pure and rich. 

Her dress is tidy, not showy; she displays but little jewelry, 
for her gems are of the mind and heart. She wins admiration 
by the engaging modesty and pleasantry of her manner, while 
she charms her friends by the brightness of her conversation 
and the evenness of her disposition. 

She is not an idle person, for she is moved by a spirit of 
diligence and usefulness; she is not selfish, for she is mindful 
of the wants of others. She is social without being a gossip; 
she is interested in the acquisition of knowledge, yet she is 
not a recluse; she is well informed, but modest in its display 
she is refined without being prudish. 

If needful to do so, she can rely upon her own talent of 
hand or mind for making a living, and can manage successfully 
the affairs of ordinary professional or commercial pursuit. 

This ideal woman marries, for she loves deeply and faith- 
fully. This fountain of her being is unpolluted by fickleness, 
design or treachery. Her love flows from her heart, not like 
the unruly torrent that would sweep and bend all before it, or 
dash itself against the rocks, to be itself whirled into eddies 
or splashed into spray, but like the deep, swift current which 
takes its way through the valley, moving the weaker impedi- 
ments from its pathway, circling gracefully about such as are 
immovable, and pursues its unbroken course to the sea. 

Such a love binds itself to its idol and its idol to itself; it 
fuses the two beings into an ideal unity. Such a love deter- 
mines its own homage; it is its own protection — a love that 
lasts and is not easily broken. 

This woman becomes a mother, for she is strong enough to 
bear the trial, and her inmost nature yearns to spend its treas- 
ures of love and service upon her own offspring. To do less 
would be unwomanly; to fail in this she would fall short of 
one great end and purpose of her life. 

As wife and mother, she is queen of the home, the molder 
of human happiness, the chief instrument in the Creator's 



THE IDEAL WOMAN, 59 

hands for binding up broken places and for developing human 
perfection. 

Blessed is her work. In doing it well she insures her own 
perfection; her children shall arise and bless her; her husband 
ivould lay down his life for her. Her opportunities are infinite, 
her duties are imperative, her crown is sure and fadeth not 
awa^. 



PART I 




CHAPTER XVIII. 
Painless Childbirth. 

T IS proper that every possible means should 
be employed to prevent human suffering. To this 
end, the mother needs to be well informed in all 
that can determine the safe and easy labor she 
must undergo in bringing her child into the 
world. Fortunate is she who passes through this climax in 
her maternity speedily and with no great strain upon her nerv- 
ous system. 

To give birth to a child is a good and blessed act, not an 
evil one; under favorable conditions it is an issue to be desired, 
not shunned. Unfortunate is the woman who does not at some 
time in her life realize this crowning fruitfulness of her exist- 
ence; deeply to be pitied is she if prevented from so doing by 
debility, disease or deformity. Painful as childbirth may be, 
helpless as an infant is, troublesome as is the growing child, 
expensive as are the years of maintenance at the parent's 
hands, deep as the anxiety of the mother often is for a way- 
ward son or daughter, ungrateful as children sometimes are for 
the long years of parental care they have received, it still 
remains true that a childless home is dreary and lonesome, 
that the heart which hears no echo of love from its own child 
is inexpressibly sad, and that a life without posterity is barren. 
Surely a duty so momentous should be a healthy one; certainly 
such an important behest of nature should be reasonably free 
from danger to the life of the mother, and free, too, from 
unnecessary suffering in its performance. In truth, there is 
nothing in human life more nearly holy than motherhood, and 
no other achievement can outweigh that of giving life to a 

human being. 

60 



PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH, 61 

It seems that the exercise of this function, within reason- 
able limits, is essential to woman's best health, to her longest 
life, to her greatest happiness and to the fullest development 
of her noblest traits. From vital statistics it is ascertained 
that married women are healthier than the unmarried; that of 
women between twenty and forty-five years of age, more single 
than married die; that of women who are suicides during this 
fruitful period of life, two-thirds to three-fourths are single; 
that of women who become insane within this limit of years, 
three-fourths to four-fifths are unmarried, and that in the path 
of strict celibacy lie a host of peculiar mental and physical ills 
that are appalling in number and fatality. 

It is a notable fact that among the most of savage and 
uncivilized peoples neither pregnancy nor childbirth itself 
interrupts the usual movements of the mother, excepting for a 
few hours, at most, at the time of the birth. The pregnant 
savage mother holds her place on foot in the shifting scenes of 
the roving tribe, stopping by the wayside to accomplish the 
trial of maternity, and, with the newly born papoose as her 
load, regains her membership among her people; or, it may 
be, she maintains her seat upon her pony, until the hour of 
birth is fully come, and, after a short time for its accomplish- 
ment, returns to the jolting motion of her palfrey and pro- 
ceeds upon her way. Such ease and quickness of birth, though 
common among the unenlightened races, seem almost incred- 
ible to those who are accustomed to the pain and distress 
attendant upon such acts among the higher races. What is so 
easy because of the simple, healthful, natural life of the 
savage mother, has become a serious trial to the more feebly 
constituted woman of luxurious and artificial life, bringing to 
the latter, as is often the case, days and weeks of suffering, 
hours of intense agony in its final act, followed by a period of 
exhaustion and endangered life. 

It is an equally notable fact that among enlightened 
peoples thousands of cases are known to physicians in which 
children are born so speedily, when the hour comes, that there 
is not time to send for the doctor; other cases in which the 



tt2 PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 

act occurs so readily that it is accomplished before his 
arrival; still others in which the operation comes upon the 
mother almost without warning in her-daily rounds of work or 
travel, so that the railway station or steam-car becomes her 
temporary hospital, and her fellow travelers are witnesses of 
the arrival of the new guest. Still others there are in which 
the child is born suddenly in bed, and, in some rare cases, it 
has occurred during the unconsciousness of the mother's sleep, 
from which she was aroused to find a "new one" under the 
covers. Often and often are the children of enlightened 
women born without pain or prolonged distress. All of such 
cases as the foregoing are due to the favorable mode of the 
mother's life, to her robust organization, to her good health, 
or to some special course of training or preparation which she 
has undergone. 

Herein is suggested the most general means of preventing 
painful and distressing maternity, that is, by such agencies as 
are found in the entire previous life of the woman, dating 
back to and including the development of her womanhood 
through the formative periods of childhood and girlhood. 
From her very first years of life she is preparing for maternity, 
and all that can contribute toward making her strong, healthy, 
vigorous, well-developed, sensible and well-informed will 
assist in determining for her a naturally easy birth of her chil- 
dren. To secure this necessary development of the young 
woman is the province of her sensible mother, whose watchful 
care and wise guardianship must decide the daughter's course 
of physical life. 

This favorable development, however, is not a condition 
that can be acquired within a short time; it is rather the result 
of slow but sure growth through years of right living. The 
promotion of such culture requires that the person shall live 
much in the open air and take such an amount of regular 
exercise as will develop muscular strength and nervous endur- 
ance. This can be done only by continued and persistent 
activity, in which the person does enough, but not too much, 
and causes such exercise to become as much a relish to her as 



PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 68 

vigorous sport is to a stout boy. Almost every kind of ordi- 
nary business and recreation will assist in this good work of 
building a strong body. As has been said before, the clothing 
should be loose and light, yet protective against cold and wet. 
Coupled indispensably with this health-giving out-door life is 
the absolute need of full and regular hours of sleep in open, 
airy rooms; so, too, the need of enough plain, wholesome food, 
without the hurtful use of rich pastry, strong spices and heat- 
ing and exciting drinks, such as tea and coffee. 

Perhaps most of all does the building of a vigorous organi- 
zation require the development of the proper form of the body 
and the full growth of all its vital parts, the most important of 
which are contained in the chest and abdomen. If these por- 
tions, which have more to do with maternity than have any 
other parts, are hindered in their natural growth, are deformed, 
displaced or dwarfed, the evil consequences, in the same 
degree, are hurtful and fatal. The tight dress-waist and 
unyielding corset are instruments of pain and death to the 
child-bearing powers of the woman who distorts her body by 
their use. The natural and robust waist is not slender; fashion 
and false taste may require it to be pinched and dwarfed, but 
the unerring wisdom of nature has made the chest full and the 
waist and abdomen soft and yielding, because it is in these 
regions that the great vital organs are lodged, and freedom to 
grow and to perform their important functions is an absolute 
necessity to the fullest vigor of life. If the dress is kept even 
moderately tight about the waist these vital portions cannot 
:.Ad will not grow as they should. It is also true that the 
camping of the chest into less than the natural limits crowds 
the contents of the abdomen down, causing unnatural prom- 
in^fnce of this portion and making such pressure upon the sex- 
ual organs within the pelvis as to displace and deform those 
parts which are specially engaged in gestation. If the girl 
would grow to be a strong woman she must stand erect, keep 
her shoulders well thrown back, permit her chest and waist to 
become full and strong, and pursue such an active life as shall 
establish a vigorous endurance. A weak, frail girl-life, if con- 



64 PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH, 

tinued, cannot fail to lead to similar weakness of woman-life 
and distressing frailty in motherhood. 

Much can be done, by regular physical training, in the prep- 
aration of the mother for her trial, even after marriage, and 
as pregnancy approaches or as it progresses. The athlete, 
when he is to make a trial of his strength, undergoes a prepar- 
atory course of training by which he brings himself up to his 
highest powers. So, also, may a woman, by a proper course 
of regular open-air exercise, bring herself up in tone of nerve 
and muscle and greatly improve her powers of endurance. If 
she has entered upon her term of pregnancy, more should be 
done than ever to preserve her good health by continuing the 
usual round of engaging occupation and of interesting recrea- 
tion. This is desirable for both the mother and the child and 
affects favorably her mental as well as her physical condition, 
preserving and improving her ability to pass successfully 
through the childbirth hours. On the other hand, excessive 
effeminacy tends to produce weakness, indolence wastes 
energy, yielding to helplessness begets greater helplessness, 
habitual reclining cultivates lassitude, life in the close atmos- 
phere and overheated air within doors is enervating, morbid 
fear of pain invites pain: all such weakness, if permitted to 
establish itself, paves the way for inefficiency and distress 
when the final hours come. Exercise should be continued, 
with proper precaution, to the last. During the eighth and 
ninth months she should walk less, ride more, lie down some 
each day, yet maintain to the end a gentle, active life of busy 
cheerfulness, avoiding fatigue, sudden jolt, hurtful strain and 
distressing positions. By such means she may come to the 
last hour with a fund of strength and power of endurance that 
are the best possible preparation for speedy and easy child- 
birth. 

As a special course of preparation for easy and painless 
birth, the mother may do much by giving extreme care to the 
matter of her diet during pregnancy. The child is formed from 
her blood, and this, in turn, from her food. Thus it is that 
through the food she eats she may to some extent determine 



PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH, 65 

the growth of her offspring It has been well determined that 
a rigid adherence to a fruit-diet, after the first two or three 
months of pregnanc3^ will aid very greatly in rendering the 
birth easy. One of the benefits from such a course of diet is 
its total relief of the tendency to constipation on the part of 
the mother. Another is, that, while fruits furnish abundant 
nourishment for the growing child, they do not abound in 
bone-making substances; hence the bony parts of the child 
remain soft and yielding. The great difficulty in childbirth is 
the passage of the large, hard bones of the child through the 
narrow passages of the pelvis. By avoiding such food as tends 
to harden the bones, they will remain sufficiently soft to yield 
to the pressure made upon them and in this way pass readily. 
Very many cases have occurred illustrating this favorable effect 
of a fruit-diet. If the mother seeks an easy birth in this way 
she should deny herself wheat, oats and corn in any of their 
forms, because they contain bone-hardening elements. She 
should not use milk or hard (lime) water. She may eat liber- 
ally of all kinds of fruit, all kinds of vegetables, of rice, sage, 
tapioca, and the flesh of young animals. Persistent and faith- 
ful adherence to such a course of diet as is here indicated will 
undoubtedly result happily to the mother when the supreme 
moments of trial come. 

There rem.ains to be considered one sovereign means of 
painless childbirth, one so specific and direct that there is no 
doubt as to its result. This one method is the use of chloro- 
form, as an anaesthetic for allaying the pain at the time of the 
birth. In the hands of the competent and skillful physician 
there is no danger attending its use, and the effects are such 
that it turns pain into pleasure, or, if used in sufficient quan- 
tity, it renders the mother wholly unconscious of the ordeal 
through which she is passing. While this agent is harmless in 
the hands and under the direction of the careful physician, it 
is dangerous in the extreme if employed and administered by 
others. The physician must be the judge as to when and to 
what degree to use the anaesthetic. If the mother is robust 
and the birth is likely to be speedy, and is attended with but 



66 PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 

slight distress, there would be no occasion for its use; but in 
those cases in which the reverse is true, its use is demanded. 
By its influence, not only are the pains relieved, but the volun- 
tary muscles are relaxed and the rigidness of the parts 
removed, so that birth is greatly facilitated. Careful physi- 
cians wait until labor has set in .thoroughly with the mother, 
then use the chloroform only to the extent of affecting the 
voluntary muscles and the sensory nerves, and thus not to 
interfere with the action of the involuntary muscles by which 
the child is born. Under such management, the labor may go 
on naturally, though the mother be wholly unconscious of 
the act. 

There are other anaesthetics which can be used at this crit- 
ical period, but none which seem so safe, and at the same 
time so effectual, as chloroform. Thousands of doctors now 
use this anaesthetic generally and constantly in their practice 
without evil or fatal results. In painful childbirth, as in every 
other case of extreme suffering, it is a beautiful and blessed 
thing. It is the duty of the physician to relieve pain. He is 
too brutal to be employed to take charge of a delicate and 
sensitive woman in her trial of maternity if he can relieve her 
suffering but will not; he is altogether too ignorant for such 
important professional duty if he does not know how to do it. 
In this enlightened age there is no need of hours of agony in 
childbirth; it is too late to let the ignorance and prejudices of 
the past prevent the skillful avoidance of such suffering. Of 
course precautions are necessary, and haste and recklessness 
have no place at the bedside of childbirth. These precautions 
are known to the competent doctor and are safe in his man- 
agement. Fortunate is the woman who has at her bedside an 
educated, capable and sympathetic physician, to whose care 
she can entrust her own life and that of her offspring. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
A Theory as to the Sex of Offspring. 




O KNOW what decides the sex of offspring is of 
peculiar interest. The subject presents much that 
is of scientific importance, since it is so closely 
connected with the origin of life and the influence 
of environment, while parents desire to learn what 
regulates the sex of their children, and to ascertain if these 
determining conditions are such as lie within parental control. 
Many theories have been advanced in times past which 
nave proposed to explain the intricacies of sex-origin. None, 
however, have fully solved the problem, while the most of 
these theories have been so wholly wanting in a reliable basis 
of careful observation as noi. to entitle them to any serious 
consideration. More recent invf stigations have proved less 
unsatisfactory, and, by reason cf trustworthy and comprehen- 
sive research, have approached much more closely to definite 
answers to the interesting queries which arise concerning the 
genesis of sex. 

Undoubtedly there are certain natural causes, operating in 
obedience to immutable vital laws, which decide the sex of 
offspring. In the human being, as in all of the higher classes 
of animals, this decision is reached at such an early period in 
the development of the embryo that observations for ascertain- 
ing the causes and conditions which make the young being 
become male or female are especially difficult. In some of 
the lower orders of animal life, the development of the sex is 
delayed until a much later date in the life of the embryo, and, 
in certain of these cases, the decision as to the maleness or 
femaleness is not established until the animal has lived for a 



68 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 

considerable time as a separate individual. For these reasons, 
observations for ascertaining the causes for the difference in 
sex are much more simple and satisfa'ctory in the lower beings 
of the vital scale than among the higher classes of animals, in 
which, as has been said, the conditions are intricate and the 
operations are obscured by their early occurrence in embry- 
onic life. 

The higher animals do not appear to be in any way excep- 
tional in the operations of the laws which govern their .exist- 
ence, and in accordance with which they have their develop- 
ment. All animate creation, including every phase of such 
being, lives, grows and reproduces its kind in obedience to the 
same general vital laws. So true is this that there is every 
reason to suppose that the causes and conditions which operate 
in the lower orders of animals in producing differences in the 
sex of offspring act in the same general manner in producing 
like differences of sex in the offspring of higher animals, 
including the human being. By observations made upon the 
inferior animals, it is possible to discover certain tendencies in 
sex-determination. These tendencies may be traced with 
similar results into the superior orders, and serve to indicate 
the relations of cause and effect to be watched for and recog- 
nized in sex decision, even in the human family. It is from 
such study and experimentation, such careful observation and 
inference, that the most trustworthy explanations have been 
produced of the origin and determination of sex. 

It is proper, however, to state that, while much is now 
definitely known in this regard, the whole has not been ascer- 
tained. What has been fairly ascertained to be true does not 
place the matter of the control of the sex of offspring within 
the easy command of parents; it does establish the fact, never- 
theless, that the regulation of sex is within their partial con- 
trol, at least. 

As ought to be supposed, the production of the two condi- 
tions, male and female — on which difference in individuals the 
continuance of life depends — is, in great measure, self-regu- 
lating, based upon such economic laws of supply and demand 



A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 69 

in nature as are in accord with the utility of sex and the wel- 
fare of the race. Evidently, nature must maintain a reasonable 
balance between the sexes. If from any cause the tendency 
were to produce males in excess, other causes must counteract 
such a tendency by the production of females, and, in like 
manner, any excess of females must be offset by correspond- 
ing tendencies to produce males. Such appears to be the 
case. It would be disastrous if the individuals of either sex 
were largely to outnumber those of the opposite sex, and it 
would be absolutely fatal for either sex to cease to be pro- 
duced. It will be found, therefore, that the regulation of sex 
is a matter of such concern that its decision is not left to the 
whim, caprice or carelessness of the parent, but is founded so 
deep in the conditions and interests of life that it is quite 
beyond human agency to alter, even in individual cases. It is 
possible, however, to recognize the general laws which tend 
to regulate sex, and possible, also, by conformity to their 
operations, to realize a desired result through their natural 
agency. 

Each individual among higher animals, whether male or 
female, begins as an impregnated ovum in the mother's body. 
Any such ovum contains elements of constitution from both of 
its parents. In the earliest existence of this impregnated 
ovum, there is a season of sexual indifference, or indecision, 
in which the embryo is both male and female, having the char- 
acteristic rudiments of each sex, only indifferently manifested. 
In this stage, the embryo is susceptible of being influenced by 
external conditions to develop more strongly in the one or the 
other direction and thus become distinctly and permanently 
male or female. It is evident that this is the season in the 
development of the individual in which influencing conditions 
and causes must operate in deciding its sex, although it is 
possible in some of the lower animals to alter the tendency of 
sex in the embryo from one sex to the other, even after it has 
been quite definitely determined. 

It is well established, in fact, that differences in sex do not 
come from a difference in the ova themselves; that is, there is 



I 



76 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 

not one kind of ova from the female which become female, 
while other ova become male, for it is possible to alter the ten- 
dency toward the one sex or the other after the ovum has been 
fertilized and the embryo has begun its career of development. 
This possible change in sex tendency in the embryo also proves 
that sex is not decided by a difference in the spermatozoa; 
that is, some of the sperm-cells from the father are not male, 
while others are female, in their constitution. 

It is incorrect to suppose, as has been held by some the- 
orists, that one testicle gives rise to male sperms and the other 
to female sperm-cells, for both male and female offspring have 
been produced from the same male parent after one testicle or 
the other has been removed. The same is true in cases in 
which either ovary has been removed from the mother; that 
is, male and female offspring are produced from mothers in 
whom either ovary has been removed In like manner, the 
sex of offspring is snown not to be materially affected by the 
comparative vigor of the parents; thus a stronger father than 
mother does not necessarily produce one sex to the exclusion 
of the other. These negative decisions are important because 
they simplify the solution of the problem of sex-determina- 
tion, by excluding, more or less fully, various causes which 
have been supposed to operate quite forcibly in deciding the 
sex of offspring. 

Some of the more positive agencies that enter into the 
determination of sex are found (i) in the influence of nutri- 
tion upon the embryo during its indifferent stages of sexual 
development, and (2) in the constitution and general condition 
of the mother before and during the early stages of pregnancy. 
These two factors appear to enter more fully than any others 
into the decision of the sex of offspring, and deserve the 
greatest consideration in this treatise. The influence of food 
in supplying the embryo with nourishment for its develop- 
ment, is perhaps, the most potent of these determining causes. 

The effects of nutrition are shown in suggestive manner in 
some of the lower orders of animal life, in which the condi- 
tions and results are readily observed. The classes of animals 



1 



A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 71 

most satisfactory for experiment in this connection are such as 
pass through different phases of individual life before reach- 
ing the highest and most fully developed stage. The insects 
afford an illustration of these differing stages of individual 
development: (i) the ^gg is perfected and deposited by the 
fly; (2) this &gg hatches into a grub or worm-like animal; (3) 
this grub, when fully grown, enters the chrysalis form and 
undergoes such complete re-organization that it comes forth as 
(4) the perfect fly. Here are four complete and distinct 
stages, during which periods the sexual function and develop- 
ment are more or less delayed until the preparation of the 
insect for its fourth stage, and the tendencies toward one sex 
or the other may be repeatedly changed from one to the other 
during the earlier stages of the individual, by the influence of 
more or less favorable vital conditions. Frogs present another 
series of changes, which make them a favorite means of 
experimentation; thus the frog perfects and deposits (i) the 
spawn; this spawn hatches into (2) the tadpole, which, after a 
season of development and life as a tadpole, gradually becomes 
transformed into the highest phase of the individual's life, (3) 
the frog. Here are three forms of life in the same animal, 
quite distinct from one another, each being preparatory to the 
next in the scale. Complete sexual function is necessary 
only in the highest or frog stage, and during the tadpole stage 
sexual development is more or less indifferent, the tendency 
during the life and growth of the tadpole to become distinctly 
and permanently either male or female being dependent in 
great measure on surrounding circumstances, especially so 
upon the influence of food, whether it be abundant and nutri- 
tious or the reverse. 

Experiments upon frogs and insects tend to establish the 
truth of the doctrine that abundant nourishment during the 
stage of sexual indifference inclines to produce femaleness, 
while want of proper nutrition during these formative or pre- 
paratory stages inclines to produce maleness in the individual. 
Some of the most significant experiments for testing the influ- 
ence of food in deciding sex are those made upon tadpoles. 



72 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 

A notable case is described by Professor Geddes,^ from the 
experiments of E. Yung, in which he says, "From the 
experience and carefulness of the observer, these striking 
results are entitled to great weight." 

It appears that, in this remarkable experiment, of three 
hundred tadpoles, when left to themselves, the ratio of females 
to males was as 57 to 43. These were divided into three lots 
of 100 each and fed upon different kinds of nutritious diet to 
ascertain the change in sex-tendency due to such food. It 
should be remembered in this connection that the tadpole repre- 
sents the stage of sexual indifference in the life of the young 
frog, and that external conditions may alter sex-tendencies 
during such period of sexual instability. The first set, in 
which the original ratio of femaleness to maleness was 54 to 
46, were fed abundantly on beef, from which cause the ratio 
altered so that it became 78 females to 22 males. The second 
portion, in which the ratio of sex in the beginning was 61 
females to 39 males, were fed upon fish, by whose more nutri- 
tive effects the ratio was raised to 81 females to 19 males. 
The third section, in which the ratio of sex stood 56 females 
to 44 males, were fed upon a still more nutritious diet, that of 
frogs, whereby the proportion of females was elevated to the 
astonishing ratio of 92 females to 8 males. Each feature of 
this experiment is suggestive in indicating that a rich diet, 
abundant nutrition, favorable conditions for life, during the 
season of sexual indifference in the embryo, tend to develop 
femaleness. In the above experiment, no less than two out of 
the three of all the tadpoles which were at first male in their 
tendencies became female. 

Another of the most interesting and suggestive examples 
of the effect of diet in deciding the sex of an embryo is pre- 
sented in the case of bees. In keeping with other insects, the 
bee develops through different stages of individual life. The 
eggs are formed and deposited by the mother-bee; these hatch 
into larvae, which, by proper growth, development and trans- 

* The Evolution of Sex, by Professor Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur 
Thomson ; Messrs. Scribner & Welford, New York. 



A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 78 

formation, becomes bees. Three kinds of bees, the queen, 
the workers and the drones, are produced from the larvae; 
they exist together as the related members of the colony, and 
perform the various duties of the swarm within the hive. The 
queen is the perfect female, the only one of all the number 
capable of being the mother of a generation of offspring. She 
is the largest and most fully developed, and, by reason of her 
larger size, her finer appearance, and her superiority in other 
respects, is fitly recognized as the queen. The workers are 
the small, active bees, through whose diligence and sagacity 
the honey is collected, the comb is fashioned, the young are 
fed and the colony is protected from dangerous intruders. 
These workers are imperfect females, incapable of producing 
eggs. The drones are the male bees; they originate from 
unfertilized eggs of the queen, and perform no other function 
in the life of the colony than that of fertilizing the ova of the 
queen. They live a comparatively short and inactive life, 
and, having performed their special sexual function, they 
are stung to death by the workers and thrown out of the 
hive. 

The facts of greatest interest in regard to this curiously 
organized colony, or family, are such as concern the differ- 
ences between the queen, whose motherhood is complete, and 
the imperfect female workers. The queen bee is produced 
from a fertilized ^%^ which is deposited in a cell sufficiently 
large to admit of the superior growth of the larva which 
hatches from it; this larva is fed with "royal diet." This 
"royal diet" consists of the most nutritious and stimulating 
bee-food, gathered and preserved for this special purpose of 
serving as the nourishment for the baby queen. By reason of 
these more favorable conditions of room and food, the larva 
becomes perfected in its development so that it finally becomes 
the queen in size, appearance and function. The workers are 
produced in like manner from fertilized eggs, but the larvae 
from these eggs are restricted to smaller cells for their growth, 
and limited to the ordinary bee-food. The result is they are 
dwarfed in size, and, though female insects, they are incapaDle 



74 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 

of performing the crowning function of the female— they pro- 
duce no eggs. 

Now, it so happens at times that some of the larvae, which 
would otherwise become workers, receive by accident crumbs 
of "royal diet," and such is the effect of this richer food upon 
;he larvae which receive it that they grow to an extra size, 
and may even become fertile workers. Certain it is, too, that 
the nurse-bees often select larvae which would otherwise 
become the dwarfed female workers, and feed these larvae 
fully upon the "royal diet." By such means, these well-fed 
larvae become young queens. Thus it is that "royal diet" 
determines that a larva, fed upon such food, shall become a 
queen, fully endowed with motherhood, while the larva 
nourished by the ordinary bee-food produces a sterile worker. 

In this case it appears that fully developed femaleness is 
due wholly to the effect of an abundance of suitable food and 
other favoring conditions during the season of sexual indiffer- 
ence which exists in the larva, and that the fate of the female 
embryo, whether it shall become a queen or a worker, is deter- 
mined within the first few days of its larval life, by the effects 
of the kind and degree of nourishment it receives. 

This is in exact accord with the results of the experiment 
already described in regard to the effect of food in determin- 
ing the sex of frogs, and tends quite forcibly and conclusively 
to establish the principle that favorable conditions of food and 
opportunities for growth tend to produce the high degree 
of development in the embryo which results in a female 
offspring. It is fair, too, to infer that femaleness, with its 
wonderful capacity for maternity, is a higher phase of devel- 
opment, due to and determined by superior conditions of 
embryonic life. 

What is here given in regard to bees is true in the same 
sense with other kinds of insects. Thus caterpillars which are 
poorly fed before entering the phase of the chrysalis come 
forth as male butterflies, while such as are abundantly fed, and 
which enter the chrysalis in a high state of development, 
become female butterflies. 



A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 75 

In the higher animals, the mammals, in which class the 
human being is included, the embryo is retained within the 
mother's body until it has developed into a being like herself 
and is ready to be born alive and be nourished by her milk. 
The changes in its growth, corresponding to the different 
stages through which the insect and frog pass, are performed 
in the hidden conditions of her body; hence, it is not possible 
to observe so definitely the effects of favorable or unfavorable 
vital conditions in determining the sex of offspring from the 
mammal. Following the indications derived from experi- 
ments with the lower animals in which it is convenient to 
watch the effects of certain external causes, it is possible to 
observe with a fair degree of certainty the influence of food, 
temperature, shelter, comfort and quietude, in deciding the 
sex of the young of the upper divisions of the vital scale. 
Results of interesting character are reported from experiments 
made upon sheep and other mammals. 

A collection of three hundred ewes was divided into two 
lots, of one hundred and fifty each. The first division were 
extremely well-fed, and were attended by young rams; as a 
result, the sex of the lambs produced was in the ratio of 60 
females to 40 males. The second division were sparingly fed 
and were associated with old rams, in which case the ratio of 
sex of offspring was 40 females to 60 males. It was also a 
noticeable fact that the heavier ewes, such as showed fuller 
development and the happier effects of favorable conditions of 
life, produced chiefly female offspring. 

Other experiments of similar kind made upon domestic 
animals tend also to establish the conclusion that with the 
superior animals, as well as with the inferior orders, favorable 
conditions of life for the mother, as regards food, shelter, 
temperature, quietude and contentment, tend to produce 
femaleness in her offspring, and that reverse conditions tend 
to produce maleness. 

In order to produce offspring, a mother must be properly 
developed in sexual function. Undoubtedly, female parents 
make a more serious productive sacrifice in bearing young than 



76 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 

is required of male parents. To be capable of such sacrifice 
as is demanded of the mother, and thereby be fully female, 
requires a higher degree of vital development of the embryo 
and offspring that is to become a female. In order to estab- 
lish its sex as a female, correspondingly superior conditions 
for development are necessary during the formative period 
in which its sex is decided. In this connection, the female 
appears as the superior organism, complete in its own endow- 
ment for individual life and capable of reproducing its kind, 
needing at most only the fertilizing element from the male, 
and, in many of the lower orders of life, not even requiring a 
fertilizing germ, but fully competent of itself to produce its 
young. "Royal diet" for the larva of the bee determines the 
complete motherhood of the queen bee. The best external 
conditions for the embryo frogs decide the greatest ratio of 
femaleness in adult frogs. The most favorable conditions of 
ewes during 'the season of conception and early pregnancy 
beget the largest number of female lambs. In general, it is 
reasonable to infer that the higher sexual organization which 
constitutes the female is to be attained in the greatest number 
of cases by embryos which have superior vital conditions dur- 
ing the formative sexual period. 

Among human beings, some facts of general observation 
become significant in the light of the foregoing inferences. 
After epidemics, after wars, after seasons of privation and dis- 
tress, the tendency is toward a majority of male births. On 
the other hand, abundant crops, low prices, peace, content- 
ment and prosperity tend to increase the number of females 
born. Mothers in prosperous families usually have more girls; 
mothers in families of distress have more boys. Large, well- 
fed, fully developed, healthy women, who are of contented 
and passive disposition, generally become mothers of families 
abounding in girls; mothers who are small or spare of flesh, 
who are poorly fed, restless, unhappy, overworked, exhausted 
by frequent child-bearing, or who are reduced by other causes 
which waste their vital energies, usually give birth to a greater 
number of boys. 



A THEORY AS TO THE SEX OF OFFSPRING. 77 

As a general proposition, the foregoing facts and inferences 
tend to establish the truth of the doctrine with women, that 
the more favorable the vital conditions of the mother during 
the period in which the sex of her offspring is being deter- 
mined, the greater the ratio of females she will bear; the less 
favorable her vital conditions at such time, the greater will be 
her tendency to bear males. 

That many apparent exceptions occur does not disprove 
the general tendency here maintained. Moreover, it is impos- 
sible to know in all cases what were the conditions of the 
mother's organism at the time in which her child was in its 
delicate balance between predominate femaleness or maleness; 
else many cases which seemingly disprove the proposition 
would be found to be forcible illustrations of its truth. Still 
further, it is probable that other causes besides those here 
mentioned act with greater or less effect in determining the 
sex of offspring. 

The doctrine herewith deduced that the female offspring is 
the more highly organized, though differing from notions cur- 
rent in the minds of some persons who are imbued with the 
idea that the male is the perfect type, is in accord with the 
plan of reproduction of vital bodies throughout the entire 
world of living beings. In the plant kingdom, that for which 
all other parts of the plant exist, that to which all other por- 
tions are subservient, is the pistil, or female organ of repro- 
duction, a part which it is the crowning function of the plant to 
perfect, a part which is the most complex, most highly organ- 
ized and most precious. In the lower orders of animals, the 
female organism usually shows its superiority in its greater 
size and fuller development, as well as in its capacity for pro- 
ducing young beings. The ability to reproduce perfect beings 
as offspring is of itself the strongest evidence of the superiority 
of the female. Among insects, birds and mammals, the 
female is usually of larger size, and, though often less attract- 
ive in appearance and less demonstrative in habit, she is more 
passive in disposition, more complacent and happy in temper. 
While greater stature and greater muscular development 



78 A THEORY AS TO THE SEX 'J.? OFFSPRING. 

often accompany the more pugnacious and restless spirit of 
the male, such differences do not necessarily argue that the 
male is the more highly organized or more nearly perfect. 
These differences, when they exist, are in great measure due 
to the fact that the animal is male, and, having less organic 
sacrifice to make in other respects, has more muscular devel- 
opment, which is increased by his more restless and unsatisfied 
constitution. 

As has been said, the capability of producing offspring is a 
sufficient evidence of perfect organization in the mother, and 
shows, too, that she possesses a requisite surplus of vital 
energy and organic power to endow her child with life, both 
of body and soul. That woman possesses higher nervcu? 
sensibility is evidenced in her finer delicacy and refinement, in 
her acuteness to mental impression, and in her keener and 
surer moral sense. Man is less complex. He makes less 
sexual sacrifice. He is not compelled to hold in reserve a 
surplus energy sufficient to equip a new life with being. He 
has moie to spend in his own muscle, brain and brawn. He 
may, therefore, excel in strength, in stature and in intellectual 
attainment; but such features of excellence are not necessarily 
an evidence that his organism is more complex, more refined, 
more perfect than woman's. Greater muscular and intellectual 
power accord with the restless life of the male, and fit him for 
dominion over brute force, but such endowments pale in sig- 
nificance when contrasted with the exquisite sensibility of 
woman, whereby she is fitted for maternity, gifted with a 
creative art and power capable of making men and women. 
Woman's motherhood, whereby the race is continued and its 
higher destiny is evolved, caps and completes the exalted rank 
maintained by the female element throughout the entire scale 
of vital being. 



PART 11. 



HUMAN CREATION 



A MOTHER'S LOVE. 



" This suhlime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a 
clean and chaste body," — Emerson. 



BY 

JOSEPH H. GREER, M. D. 



79 



PART II 




CHAPTER I. 
The Vital Principle of Life. 

HE perpetuity of any species is dependent upon the 
power of each individual of the class to transmit 
life. This power is received through sex, which is 
to be seen everywhere in the domain of nature among 
creatures which live, move and have being, and in vegeta- 
tion which blossoms and brings forth each after its kind. 
Types may vary according to the environment in which they 
have been placed, but the scientist can trace each to the source 
from which it sprang. 

Biology, the broad science which comprehends the phe- 
nomena manifested by living matter, elaborates on the continu- 
ance of life by transmission to offspring. In the lowest form 
of life the only mode of generation now known is the division 
of the body into two or more parts, each of which grows to the 
size and assumes the form of its parent and repeats the process 
of multiplication. This method of multiplication by fission 
is properly called generation because the parts which are sepa- 
rated are severally competent to give rise to individual organ- 
isms of the same nature as that from which they arose. 

In the higher forms, life is reproduced by a union of parents 
of different sexes. This is gamo-genesis; the other is agamo- 
genesis. 

Sex is not substance. It is a power pervading the realm of 
living things, and is known through its manifestations. While 

81 



ei THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 

all organisms are provided with the means of reproduction, the 
means are not the thing itself. 

In the human family children are born male and female 
often of the same parents. Why is not clearly defined. Some 
observers state that good conditions, tending even toward 
voluptuousness, produce females ; and vice versa : a theory in 
confirmation of Mother Goose's jingle: 

"Little boys are made of rags, tags, and old pudding bags ; 
Little girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice." 

By whatever combination of prenatal circumstances they are 
sexed, babes are usually born with either the masculine or femi- 
nine principle clearly defined. 

In 'True Manhood" are found these words : 

"The soul is the man. If possessed of the masculine attribute 
he appropriates to this end the substances he eats and the air 
he breathes. He transforms them by this principle into a male 
body. A soul having the feminine principle transforms these 
substances into a female body. The ovaries of the female as 
well as the testes of the male are organizers, but they produce 
unlike results from the same material. 

"The physical manifestations of sex in face, form and voice 
are the outward signs of an inward power." 

All creative ability has its origin in the sex nature. New and 
useful conceptions of the brain are applauded, although the 
generality of our race and clime do not know the source. 

Tiie Sexual Instinct. 

Mr. Grant Allen, who in his lifetime was a student and 
thinker, said : "Everything high and ennobling in our nature 
springs directly out of the sexual instinct. Its alliance is wholly 
with whatever is purest and most beautiful within us. To it 
we owe our brightest colors, graceful form and melodious 



THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 83 

sound, rhythmical motion. To it we owe the evolution of 
music, of poetry, of romance, of belles lettres; the evolution of 
sculpture, of decorative art, of dramatic entertainment. To it 
we owe the entire existence of our aesthetic sense, which is, in 
the last resort, a secondary sexual attribute. From it springs 
the love of beauty; around it all beautiful arts still circle as 
their center. Its subtle aroma pervades all literature. And to 
it, too, we owe the paternal and maternal and marital relations ; 
the growth of the affections; the love of little pattering feet 
and baby laughter ; the home with all the associations that clus- 
ter around it ; in one word, the heart and all that is best in it. 
"If we look around among the inferior animals, we shall see 
that germs of everything which is best in humanity took their 
rise with them in the sexual instinct. The song of the nightin- 
gale, or of Shelley's skylark, is a song that has been acquired 
by the bird himself to charm the ears of his attentive partner. 
The chirp of the cricket, the cheerful note of the grasshopper, 
the twittering of the sparrow, the pleasant caw of the rookery — 
all these, as Darwin showed, are direct products of sexual se- 
lection. Every pleasant sound that greets our ears from hedge 
or copse in a summer walk has the self-same origin. If we 
were to take away from the country the music conferred upon 
it by the sense of sex we should have taken away every vocal 
charm it possesses save the murmuring of brooks and the whis- 
pering of breezes through the leaves. No thrush, no blackbird, 
no linnet would be left us; no rattle of the night-jar over the 
twilight fields; no chirp of insect, no chatter of tree-frog, no 
cry of cuckoo from the leafy covert. The whippoorwill and 
the bobolink would be as mute as the serpent. Every beautiful 
voice in wild nature from the mocking-bird to the cicada is, in 
essence, a love-call ; and without such love-calls the music of the 
fields would be mute, the forest would be silent." 



84 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 

Throughout the domain of nature the instinct of sex is 
paramount. In the lower kingdom^ of life the instinct, pure and 
undefiled, is followed. In the human family the instinct is 
subject to the modifications of civilization; which, alas, is not 
always for the best. And lives are colored by the thoughts of 
sex, which may be any of the varying shades between good and 
bad. Asceticism on one hand strives to suppress all thoughts 
and feelings regarding the relation of the sexes as impure. 
Those who are so narrow as to conform to the letter while 
lacking the spirit of true religion may be cited as the most 
baneful of combatants of pure thought on the subject. Sus- 
pecting evil with a large E, they become the self-constituted 
guardians of public and private morals. Kipling remarks it 
in one of his "Tales." He says : "You have noticed that many 
religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem — for purely 
religious purposes, of course — to know more about iniquity 
than the Unregenerate. Perhaps they were specially bad before 
they were converted ! At any rate, in the imputation of things 
evil and in putting the worst construction on things innocent, 
a certain type of good people may be trusted to surpass all 
others." Their perverted understanding, or lack of under- 
standing, distorts and discolors much with which they come 
in contact. Seeking for the unlovely, the good, the true, the 
beautiful is lost to view. 

On the other hand is the unchaste, immoral sensualist, who 
believes that life means gratification of the senses, the most 
exquisite of which is in the sexual relation. He drains the 
wine of life to the dregs, and when at last sated can see 
nothing of the true use of bodily senses. The extremes exist 
because they do not know the truth. 



THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 85 

The Training: of Youth, 

As to the training of youth, Prof. David Starr Jordan says : 
"The ultimate end of science as well as its initial impulse is 
the regulation of human conduct. To make right action 
possible and prevalent is the function of science. The world 
as it is is its province. In proportion as we conform to the 
conditions of the world as it is, do we find the world beautiful, 
glorious, divine. The truth of the *world as it is' must be the 
ultimate inspiration of art, poetry and religion. The world as 
many have agreed to say it is, is quite another matter. The 
less our children hear of this the less they will have to unlearn 
in their future development. 

"By the study of realities wisdom is built up. In the rela- 
tions of objects he can touch and move, the child comes to 
find the limitation of his powers, the laws which govern phe- 
nomena, and to which his actions must be in obedience. So 
long as he deals with realities these laws stand in their proper 
relation. 

*Tt is clear that the knowledge is of most worth which can 
be most directly wrought into the fabric of our lives. That dis- 
cipline is most valuable which will best serve us in quietly 
unfolding our own individualities." 

Applying Prof. Jordan's words to understanding what is 
really true of the sex nature, the same law holds in force; the 
relation of that department of human nature to other depart- 
ments must be known and the law obeyed if one would find life 
glorious, divine, beautiful. 

Manifestation of the sex principle in the human family is 
not noticeable until the beginning of puberty, the average age 
for which is about fourteen years. In the boy, the bony frame- 
work enlarges, the shoulders broaden, the chest expands, and 
the voice deepens. He bears within his being the creative 



86 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 

impulse, for the first time. If properly instructed, creative 
force will be turned into the channel of energy and vigor ; if not, 
the probabilities are that the instinct v;rill revert to the type as 
seen in many of the lower animals. 

The changes of puberty are as pronounced in the healthy girl 
as in the healthy boy. Bodily enlargement is most noticeable 
at the hips; the framework increases in size to permit of en- 
largement of the ovaries and uterus. In sympathy with these 
the mammary glands, or breasts, enlarge. The mental changes 
are as remarkable; life assumes more pleasing proportions as 
the period of adolescence is ushered in. 

Safety in Knowledgfe Only* 

Knowdng that the voice of passion will speak to every normal 
child, none are worthy of the name of parent who will not by 
every known method instruct their children. "If sharp tools 
were of necessity," says a modern thinker, "to be put into the 
hands of a child, we should realize that instruction in the wise 
use of them would be needed; and, if by ignorance the child 
were injured, we should blame ourselves more than we should 
him. The powers that come with the development of maturity, 
unless understood, are more dangerous than the sharpest razor, 
but the tacit teaching of society is that parents and teachers 
must keep silent and leave the child to learn by his own experi- 
ence, and also to suffer the results of his own ignorance.'* 

In its unperverted aspect, the prompting of passion is the 
prompting to create ; it is a great impelling force needing guid- 
ance. Of the many ways of expressing this power that of the 
physical union of the sexes is to be used the least ; because of 
the intensity of feeling, great inroads are thus made upon the 
vitality of the body, consuming what might be used in making 
the most of life's possibilities. The haphazard generation of 



THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 87 

offspring is what the world least stands in need of, and procrea- 
tion is always attended by waste in parental energy. 

It is part of the great plan of nature that the sexes shall be 
attractive to each other. "Either sex alone is half itself," says 
Tennyson. And "love is the fulfillment of the law," says an 
older volume. Companionship between the sexes is necessary 
to preserve an equilibrium. Those who are isolated are those 
who know least how to control the attraction toward the oppo- 
site sex. Hence comradery should be cultivated; comradery 
as human beings, however, not as representatives of opposite 
sexes. 

When the time for marriage shall arrive, again there is need 
of the counsel of wise and loving friends, and good books. The 
realities of what the relation may mean should be made as 
clear as possible. The interested parties should learn the im- 
portant lesson that control of the animal propensity and 
diverting the impelling force into other creative channels are 
more necessary after marriage than before, for the good of all 
concerned. The removal of all barriers to full and free in- 
timacy would not mean license to unlimited sexual gratifica- 
tion if youth was properly instructed. "Life is harmony and 
health," writes a correspondent to one of the progressive jour- 
nals. "There is harmonious expression for every natural im- 
pulse of life. Life is creative. To be filled with life is to be 
filled with creative desire. Every thought and every feeling 
is vitalized within this creative life. Life has endless variety; 
it creates in myriad ways. This variety is in man because life 
is in him. The world is filled with his creations, and still his 
creations are multiplying. Every human being feels an im- 
pulse to create in a way peculiar to himself, and ever longs until 
his desire is fulfilled. 

"Now, when a human being develops from childhood into 



88 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 

youth, and feels the influx of a larger life in heart, in mind, in 
body, is he — or she — told, this is life impelling you to use it 
in creating beautiful and useful works for the help and happi- 
ness of your brothers and sisters ? Life is love — and love ae- 
sires to give itself and to create freely. 

"No, he is told this new sensation is the animal passion which 
develops in all animals. It is the desire of the animal for sexual 
union with its own speciesj and its use is the perpetuation of 
the species ; you will never find satisfaction and relief except in 
the fulfillment of this desire. 

"Then begins the concentration of thought upon the sensa- 
tion of life, and locating it in one part of the body. From 
henceforth every new influx of life is determined here, instead 
of being distributed through the whole body, as it would natur- 
ally be if the thought was not trained to prevent it. This causes 
congestion in place of free circulation, and inflammation in 
place of delightful sensation ; and there is more or less uncon- 
trollable desire for expression in one direction, instead of grand 
desires in many directions. While passion is being cultivated, 
the youth is also taught that this desire of the physical cannot 
be gratified except he secures a permit that is made legal, and 
marry one of the opposite sex." 

Recapitulating the average life, "as men have agreed to say 
it is," it can be readily seen that the scant teaching the young 
receive regarding the development of life tends to make of 
marriage a state of unlimited debauchery, where self-control 
is thrown away. Why wonder at the few comparatively happy 
unions when it is onlyi by chance that any have learned the 
beneficence of creative life, or the powers of sex. Outside of 
marriage sexual indulgence is regarded as degrading. 
Through what chemistry does wrong become right by legal 
enactment? Laws are supposed to bind people together for 



II 



THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 89 

sake of offspring, because offspring are believed to be the 
necessary consequence of physical intimacy. Heaven pity the 
pair whose only tie is the legal one, and pity the offspring 
of such unions ! 

Comradery, mutual interest, equality and reciprocal affection 
are the true binding forces, which no law can sever, nor 
generate if they do not exist. These are enhanced by conjugal 
intimacy of the nature that does not exhaust. "Conservation 
of power is both possible and effective for the unmarried ; and 
through love, training and self-control, marriage may be con- 
summated in such manner that not only is the same conserva- 
tism and appropriation attained, but, by the union of the spir- 
itual forces of two souls, it is greatly augmented." — Karezsa. 

Completeness is never attained by man alone, or by woman 
alone. The eternal feminine complements the eternal mascu- 
line. Mutual love and tenderness leading up to a final complete 
blending of physical and spiritual natures generates a binding 
attractiveness that will not be set aside lightly. 

A dramatic critic, in reply to the moralist (described by 
Kipling) who criticised the stage, remarks: "They (the ag- 
gressive moralists) will say, 'How do you account for the 
fact that a play in which there is exhibited pronounced sexual- 
ity or scenes of excessive passion or abnormal characters such 
as courtesans, strong-willed self-helpers, or even perverted be- 
ings, attract large audiences? How do you explain the fact 
that if a play contains what are described as naughty episodes, 
or suggestive scenes, it is pretty sure to be successful ?' 

"Now to these two pertinent questions I am not going to give 
the reply of the ordinary aggressive moralist, that human 
nature is evil and naturally turns to evil. This answer is 
neither real, true, nor philosophic. The real answer is parallel 
to the answer we must give to the question. Why do all men 



90 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. 

and women secretly enjoy naughty stories, especially those 
dealing with indelicate subjects? Because these things are 
fundamentally of the first importance l:o the affirmation of life 
and its continuance." 

It is not true, however, that all men and women enjoy 
"naughty" stories. The ascetic who truly believes the passion 
of the body to be vile shrinks from vileness. On the other 
hand, all who have learned to reverence the creative department 
or life are hurt and offended by common jesting or salacious 
stories. 

Of the darkness and mysticism that surrounds the subject of 
love Mrs. Jameson asks: "Must love be ever discussed in 
blank verse as if it were a thing to be played in tragedies or 
sung in song, a subject for pretty poems or wicked novels, 
having nothing to do with the prosaic current of our every-day 
existence, our normal welfare and eternal salvation? Must 
love ever be treated with profaneness as a mere illusion, or 
with shame as a mere weakness, or with levity as a mere 
accident? whereas it is a great necessity lying at the founda- 
tion of morality and happiness. Death must come — and love 
must come ; but the state in which they find us, whether aston- 
ished, blinded, frightened and ignorant, or like reasonable crea- 
tures guarded, prepared and fit to manage our own feelings, 
this, we suppose, depends upon ourselves. For want of such 
self -management and self-knowledge look at the evils that 
ensue : hasty, improvident, unsuitable marriages ; repining, dis- 
eased or vicious celibacy ; irretrievable infamy ; cureless insan- 
ity. With childhood and youth thus frightened, oh, see to it, 
parents, that your own hands hold the helm of destiny rather 
than suffer such interests to be wafted by the gusts of casual 
influence, or driven upon the lee-shore of ruin by the monsoon 
of artfully excited passions." 

Only the truth- will make them whole. 



THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. tl 

Sex and Life* 

Sex is the vital principle of life, and must be preserved as 
its balance-wheel. Any unnatural mode of thought or prac- 
tice which silences the voice of desire emasculates character; 
from thence onward Hfe is upon the dowm-grade. No one has 
been truly great who has been weak in sexuality. Geniuses are 
only conceived by a complete blending of the entire natures of 
parents. That geniuses are rare accents the fact that the 
majority are born of the merely physical unions. 

Emanuel Swedenborg said: "The spiritual fruits of the 
union of the sexes are love and wisdom." 

The celibate life may be full of much that is good, true and 
beautiful, but perfection is approximated most nearly when 
the two principles of sex are harmoniously mated. No adult 
alone in life but will, in the silence, know a longing for 
the counterpart who must be somewhere in the world. But 
abundant and useful employment for hands and brain will pre- 
vent any blighting influence from devastating the good there is. 
Unmarried persons should make it a point to mix freely in 
the society of equals. The magnetic atmosphere of a company 
of men and women has a tonic influence on those who 
live alone. If no effort is made to draw one away from self in 
a greater or less degree, vital force will wane. Man needs the 
society of woman ; woman needs the friendship of man. If it 
can not be that they can forsake all other ties, cleave to one 
another, and rear a brood of love-begotten children, less inti- 
mate association will relatively benefit. 

The isolated ascetic can never enter into the portals of spir- 
itual grace and strength, such as is the outgrowth of association 
between the sexes. In true marriage the only natural way is 
opened for growth in every direction. Loveless lives are non- 
progressive lives. 



PART IL 




CHAPTER IL 
The Dominant Power of Life. 

'HE power to think and reason and to express the 
higher intellectual planes through the forces of 
same in language seems to be one of the strongest dis 
tinguishing features between humankind and then 
kindred, the lower animals. The power to ascend to thoughr 
is exclusively human. 

In the scope of human intelligence advancement is made b^ 
the ability to choose. Life is represented 'by contrasts; or by 
positive and negative forces. The positive gives, the negative 
takes away. The most common of these contrasts are light and. 
darkness, heat and cold, good and evil, all of which have their 
uses in the economy of life. The power of choosing from the 
positives, or the negatives, is in thought. If the power to think 
is but weakly used individuals are straws on the current of life, 
wafted hither and thither by the force of thought of others upon 
the same plane with themselves. Nature abhors a vacuum, and 
if one will not think his own thoughts, the mind will be filled, 
or preyed upon, by thoughts of others to a large extent. 
Thought modifies the cast of feature, the manner of gesture, 
and the entire character. If you are determined and decided 
the bearing and address will make it known ; vice versa. Dick- 
ens recognized the outward expression of the interior life and 
makes use of it in describing "Miss Wade" in the story of Little 
Dorrit: "Although not an open face, there was no pretense 

92 



THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 98 

about it* 'I am self-contained and self-reliant. Your opinion 
is nothing to me. I have no interest in you, care nothing for 
you, and see and hear you with indifference' — this it plainly 
said. It said so in the proud eyes, in the lifted nostril, in the 
handsome but compressed and even cruel mouth. Cover either 
two of those channels of expression, and the third would have 
said so still. Mask them all, and the mere turn of the head 
would have showm an unsubduable nature." 

The Power of Thoughts 

The veneer of polish which conventionality decrees can 
rarely hide real characteristics. The silent but powerful influ- 
ence of private thoughts makes a record upon the form, feature, 
and gesture. That thought is constructive is everywhere to be 
seen, and it follows in the direction of ideals. If there is no 
clear-cut ideal, character is vacillating. Life grows from 
within ; hence the true power to live comes from ideals approved 
by the conscience, and enforced by the will. 

Regarding thought Mr. C. C. Post says : "There are currents 
of thought as there are currents of electricity, of magnetism in 
the earth, of water on the surface of the earth, of air above the 
earth. I know it because the same law runs through all things, 
and there is never a cause without its accompanying effect; 
never a spring without a rivulet of flowing water." 

Whatever one thinks allies him with the strata of thought 
erf others on the same line or current of thought. It attracts 
a similar element from others, in proportion to the strength put 
forth. 

T'he study of evolution shows that animals evolved the parts 
of body needed to place them in harmony with their surround- 
ings. While people may not be able through the force of their 
thoughts or desire to grow wings, they can, in the realm of 



94 THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 

mind, become that upon which the heart is fixed. Evolutionary 
development has progressed beyond the physical realm. "Fra 
Elbertus" says : ''All things come through desire, and every 
sincere prayer is answered. 

"Many people know this, but they do not know it thoroughly 
enough so that it shapes their lives." 

To be convinced of a desire and be backed by resolution, its 
attainment will come, no matter how many obstacles must first 
be surmounted. The central idea is to fix the mind upon an as- 
piration, and then not waver in working to that end. That does 
not say that the end will bring peace and happiness, for it may 
not be in harmony with the abstract law of universal goodness, 
without which no one wins contentment. An object may be 
persistently desired which, when obtained, will only bring dis- 
appointment. But the law is the Law. We get negatives by 
desiring them. 

When life's forces or energies are put forth in a wrong direc- 
tion, even though it be done in ignorance, the seeds of punish- 
ment are implanted therewith. Or if the wrong is done know- 
ingly the individual is adding fuel to his own discomfiture. "Fra 
Elbertus" tells us that *'Sin is its own punishment. God never 
punishes men for their sins : a self-lubricating, automatic Law 
looks after that." There is no escape from the penalty except a 
change of causes. As physical pain is felt from a misuse of 
bodily powers, so mental suffering must be as the result of mis- 
appropriation of mental powers. Experience in any degree of 
trangression ought to give wisdom to avoid the cause, on the 
same principle that "a burned child fears the fire." 

"Man wittingly or unwittingly violates law — physical, men- 
tal or spiritual — and the inner tribunal and sequential penalty 
judge him. The law in itself may be kindly and the penalty 
educational, but to his untrained vision they both seem adverse 



THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 95 

and even evil. But only through some experimental iniraction 
of the moral order can undeveloped man divine its mandates. 
Only the freedom of choice, and some degree of discipline, at 
least slight, for missmg the mark, make developed moral char- 
acter and spiritual fiber possible. As man progresses in inner 
unfoldment and attains higher evolutionary planes, his diver- 
gence from the moral highway will be more slight. At length 
he will feel its leadings and outgrow the necessity of the hard 
primitive cuffs and blows which are provisionally required to 
startle him and push him out of the deep ruts of animality. 
* * * Growth is only possible through wise choosing rnd 
exercise." — Prof. Henry Wood. 

Love the Needful Element* 

The needful element to growth is the spirit of love. And it 
may be cultivated by striving to overlook, to not recognize, 
anything that excites antagonism. The foundation principle 
was expressed by the Christ when He said, "But I say unto 
you resist not evil." And Prof. Wood says : "The scientific 
value of non-resistance is that it destroys all the realism that 
evil possesses. In proportion as one turns his back upon it and 

Elves it behind it dissolves into its native nothingness." 
As the absence of heat may cause one to freeze, and the 
sence of light may confuse and cause one to lose his way, 
the absence of good may work to the disadvantage, and 
even injury, of one not fortified by strength from within. Good 
includes everything that works for the uplifting of human- 
cind. Evil includes whatever lowers. As soon as the intelli- 
S^ence comprehends the fact that evil has no power save as a 
)lace is given it in thought, and non-recognition is practiced, 
Dne is upon the true highway of mutual and spiritual progress. 
To aid this end Mrs. Talbot has the following to offer : "You 



96 THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 

must know that thoughts are creative, that words are spoken 
thoughts and stand for the things spoken. You can hold to a 
certain thought until you bring about the condition of that 
thought. You not only affect yourselves by thoughts, but 
others also. Bravery and confidence beget bravery and con- 
fidence; love and tenderness beget love and tenderness. But 
what is of most importance for you to know is that reiterating 
a certain word brings about the condition of mind that word 
or thought represents. This is a law capable of proof by all." 
In rhyme Ella Wheeler Wilcox expresses the same thought : 

"Words are great forces in the realm of life ; 
Be careful of their use. Who talks of hate. 
Of poverty, of sickness, but sets rife 
These very elements to mar his fate. 

"When love, Halth, happiness and plenty hear 
Their names repeated over day by day. 
They wing their way like answering fairies near, 
Then nestle down within our homes to stay. 

"Who talks of evil conjures into shape 

That formless thing, and gives it life and scope. 
This is the law. Then let no word escape 
That does not breathe of everlasting hope." 

An experiment as to the action and reaction of thought-force 
is as follows : 

When in the company of persons who do not antagonize 
what you have to say, enter into a description of something you 
dislike or hate. Let it be of a person who you think has done 
you wrong; or if you are a partisan in politics or religion, de- 
nounce the follies, fallacies and iniquities of the opposition. 



THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 97 

Let loose the vials of wrath, and be sure that you feel what 
you are saying; keep up the tirade as long as you can. Then 
drop the matter and go about your ordinary occupation. Dis- 
miss the subject entirely and forget what you have been saying. 

In from two to six hours the rebound will be felt. Thoughts 
go first to the object toward which directed, and do their work 
if the person be not defended by a power of non-recognition 
of unwholesome influence. You may have forgotten the sub- 
ject of wrath or denouncement (though if trying it as an ex- 
periment you will not be apt to) . When the reaction comes a 
terrible fit of despondency is felt ; there will seem to be no light 
or ray of hope whichever way you look. You may even feel 
that life is not worth living and incline to suicide. Everything 
will assume the worst possible hue. 

It is only that the conditions created by an antagonistic state 
of mind have returned as "chickens come home to roost." 

After proving that despondency or "the blues" comes 
through holding thoughts of evil, and concentrating energy 
upon them, the opposite experiment may be tried. 

Think of some useful, pleasant subject, or person, and say 
everything good that can be thought of it. Laud it to the skies, 
and for as many minutes as possible hold the thought to the 
subject. Then forget the subject and assume the ordinary 
duties of life. In a few hours exuberance will come, and joy 
that will uplift the heart and stimulate the belief that all is 
good. 

All the time people are performing one or both of these 
experiments. The confirmed pessimist has practiced de- 
nouncing, the optimist praising. 

One of the present-day philosophers says, "A man doesn't 
really begin to live until he begins to love with that real love 
which eliminates every element of evil." Which is to say. 



98 THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 

when one allows the light of love to shine into the soul without 
placing- barriers in the way he has at last found his place in the 
true relation to the universe. In thinking thoughts of good- 
ness, of health, of peace and prosperity he becomes allied with 
those elements in both the material and spiritual realm. For, 
as Helen Wilmans says, "The entire universe is one mind of 
which all objects, including man, are varied expressions." And 
as like attracts like in one realm so it does in another." 

"To strive to forget enemies, or to throw out to them only 
friendly thought, is as much an act of self -protection as it is to 
put up your hands to ward off a physical blow. The persistent 
thought of friendliness turns aside ill-will and renders it 
harmless," says Mulford. 

"There," said a boy to whom his mother read the above 
paragraph, "is a better reason for being good and doing good 
than to tell a fellow the devil will get him if he don't do right." 

The instinct of self-preservation, "the first law of nature," 
is appealed to. By constant practice an attitude of friendliness 
becomes a habit. By that it is not meant that one should en- 
dure, then pity, then embrace what is not good, or that one 
should wink at the evil-doings of society. We can be friendly 
to a sinner, but not to the sin ; and can see that sin is a wrong 
expression of life's energies. If possessed of sufficient wisdom 
and skill, we may be able to persuade a sinner to forsake the 
error of his way, by enabling him to see the sooner he changes 
front the less will be the pain and punishment as his share of 
discipline. Very few can philosophically accept pain and pun- 
ishment as the "beneficent friction that turns men back from 
what would otherwise be self-destruction." 

It is most important that natural law be learned, because 
knowledge of its rewards and punishments would save from 
many mistakes. It would change the point of view in the 



THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 99 

majority of instances, and teach the advantage of coming into 
harmony at an early day. 

The Folly of Fean 

"The truth shall make you free," says the good book. The 
constant seeking for what is true enables one to approximate 
freedom. But there is one thrall which prevents progress so 
long as individuals allow themselves to remain under it, and 
that is fear. Fear is the greatest foe of all, and it travels like 
an epidemic if conscious thought is not closed against it. 

A bright newspaper woman, in an article contributed to her 
journal about cowardice, said : "There is nothing on earth to be 
afraid of — nothing worth being afraid of — if you face it. 

"A coward is always afraid. Day or night, asleep or awake, 
eating or drinking, afraid, afraid, afraid. Of what ? Of his 
own weak, groveling spirit. Of his own shrinking soul. 

"If a man can not depend upon the friend within his own 
soul to help him in time of need, he is indeed friendless." 

And Brother Elbert Hubbard says: "Fear is the rock on 
which we split, and hate is the shoal on which many a barque 
is stranded. When we are fearful the judgment is as unreli- 
able as the compass of a ship whose hold is full of iron ore. 
When we hate we have unshipped the rudder. And if we stop 
to meditate on what gossips say, we have allowed a hawser to 
befoul the screw." 

How can one lift one's self out of the strata of fear ? By re- 
fusing to receive the thought — by resisting and not recog- 
nizing it. Fill the mind with thoughts of universal goodness. 
"Out in the silent night, under the stars, say to yourself, again 
and yet again, 'I am a part of all my eyes behold.' And the 
feeling will surely come to you that you are no mere interloper 
between earth and sky, but that you are a necessary particle of 
the Whole."— Fra Elbertus. 



100 THE DOMINANT POV/ER OF LIFE. 

And as a necessary particle of the Whole, rely upon your- 
self to such an extent that what others may think or say will 
not cause a wavering from any noble desire to do or be. Put 
away fear that the power of thought may work in freedom, 
and then by experience and observation learn to distinguish 
what is good from what is not good. "He who will not see 
the truth can not actualize it in his life and surroundings," 
Mrs. Wilmans says. And that finds a parallel thought in the 
words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge : *'He who begins by loving 
Christianity better than truth will proceed by loving his own 
sect or church better than Christianity, and in loving himself 
better than all." No limit must be placed upon possibilities. 
We may not always have the same point of view : indeed, if 
there has been mental and spiritual progression, we will not. 
As the scope widens, more and more of the circle of Truth can 
be comprehended. 

The Ideals of Character* 

The natural law of human progress is that we shall grow 
in the direction of our ideals ; the higher the ideals the higher 
the character developed. If resolution is fixed to do the best 
that we know toward any given end, do not care if your man- 
ner of living is not entirely acceptable to the crowd among 
which you move. Undeveloped character may be compared 
to unripe fruit. Both are at last recognized for their true 
worth when unfolded and grown to maturity. 

Mr. J. A. Edgerton is the author of the beautiful poem en- 
titled, "Resolution," from which the following stanzas are 
taken : 



"I will cling unto the highest ; I will struggle toward the right ; 
I will keep my spirit windows ever open to the light ; 



J 



THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 101 

I will keep my mind anointed with the magic balm of youth ; 
I will keep my footsteps pointed toward the shining hills of 
Truth. 

*'I will leave the creeds and dogmas to the pedant and the 
priest; 
I will seek to do my duty in this present life, at least. 
What am I? If I should live, or if I die, when I am gone, 
There is nothing lost, or can be, for the Universe moves on. 

"In my spirit is a promise of a sweet Eternity, 
Of a progress onward, upward, through the eons yet to be ; 
I will trust it, well content ; and strive to fill my present place 
As a unit of the Infinite, a factor of the race." 

The purpose of every one in whom spiritual consciousness 
has been quickened should be in accord with the first stanza 
quoted. To keep this spirit window ever open to the light one 
must conceive of infinite light as being immediately without, 
ready to enter when barriers are taken away ; for thought fixes 
things in their relation to individual life. "By our desires we 
relate ourselves to the thing desired," Mr. Post tells us. By 
constantly and persistently desiring, attainment is finally 
reached. But the Universe is Good ; Good is the positive force, 
and as thoughts and actions are in harmony therewith is firm 
ground gained. Browning says, "There never was one lost 
good." 

Mistiness, ignorance that this is the true pathway to higher 
things, may cause the Children of Earth to waver in their 
allegiance to Good ; but once on higher ground, where the mists 
dissolve, desire is singly for the way that leads to happiness. 

A further step in that progress knows no resting-place. Once 
having attained that which was desired, the soul seeks yet other 



102 THE DOMINANT POWER OF LIFE. 

means for perfecting growth. It has been said that a satisfied 
person is not a progressive one. What was an ideal, and 
infinitely desirable at one point of development, will be used 
and discarded, and another and better take its place. This is 
the natural upward path to the rounding out of character. 
Conscious determination to conquer obstacles and acquire ideals 
brings strength for accomplishing. Resist not evil — ignore it, 
and work with a will toward that which is good with the 
might which is in thought, the dominant power of life. 




PART II 



CHAPTER III 
The Temple of the SouL 

'HE body, the dwelling-place of the Ego, is the seat 
of ever-changing activity. Its beauty, strength, and 
all the graces, or lack of them, depend upon devel- 
opment in accordance with natural law, or in trans- 
gression of natural law. First it becomes needful to know 
the way of life; after that it is only necessary to "obey and 
live." 

There is, within every natural mind, an instinctive dislike 
for whatever is repulsive or shows signs of decay. The same 
inherent reason that causes one to object to rags and tatters 
in the way of clothing causes one to dislike imperfections of 
the body. It is the tendency of human nature to seek the rela- 
tively perfect. 

Beauty Acquired by Self - Culture^ 

With a little care each day most of the imperfections of the 
body can be improved or overcome. Beauty and strength of 
body are acquired by attention to physical needs, just as beauty 
and strength are added to the intellect — by taking thought. 
Added to that is the more powerful power of the mind to pre- 
serve and rejuvenate the body. 

Says a well-known writer: "You, and generations before 
you, age after age, have been told it was an inevitable necessity 
— that it was the law and in the order of nature for all times 
and for all ages — that, after a certain period of life, your body 
must wither and become unattractive, and that even your 
mmds must fail with increasing years. You have been told 

103 



104 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 

that your mind had no power to repair and recuperate your 
body. * * * 

*'It is no more in the inevitable order of nature that human 
bodies should decay as they have decayed in the past than that 
man should travel by stage-coach as he did years ago ; or that 
messages should be sent only by letter as before the use of the 
telegraph, or that your portrait could be made only by the 
painter's brush as before the discovery that the sun could print 
an image of yourself on a sensitive surface prepared for the 
purpose. * * * 

"If you make a plan in thought, in unseen element, for your- 
self as helpless and decrepit, such plan will draw to you un- 
seen thought-element that will make you weak, helpless and 
decrepit. * * * 

"If in your mind you are ever building an ideal of yourself 
as strong, healthy and vigorous, you are building to yourself 
of invisible element that which is ever drawing to you more 
health, strength and vigor. * * * ' 

"Persistency in thinking health, in imagining or. idealizing 
yourself as healthy, vigorous and symmetrical, is the corner- 
stone of health and beauty. Of that which you think most, that 
you will be and that will you have most of." 

This thought is not essentially new when it is remembered 
that Shakespeare was continually bringing the idea forth in 
varieties of dress. "There is nothing either good or bad but 
thinking makes it so," he tells us. But humanity has had 
to be developed to understand thoughts uttered by master- 
minds that grasped the truth. 

The Inner and the Outer Life. 

"Outer life must correspond to inner life, else law and se- 
quence would be at fault, and the chain which binds cause and 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 105 

effect be severed." So let us place ourselves in harmony with 
the natural tendencies to beautify, and thereby align ourselves 
with the beneficence of all Natural Law. There are many 
means for adding to external beauty, but only that is real and 
lasting which is made by an inner life which acknowledges and 
demonstrates that "All is Good" — that what are known as evils 
are no more a part of Natural Law than barnacles are a part 
of the ship to which they become attached. That one can and 
should live above fear and strife for the best development of 
form, feature and character. 

The author of 'The Woman Beautiful" says: "There's 
nothing that will make a stolid, bovine face like a brain that 
isn't made to get up and hustle. * * * Study is mental 
development, and mental development usually means a bright, 
pleasing expression." 

Where are the girls or adult women who care only for a 
doll's beautiful, expressionless countenance ? They are not to be 
numbered among those whose minds are not infantile. Yet 
they who possess the secret of lasting beauty are too few. 

Madame Yale, the beauty specialist, says of the facial expres- 
sion : "Our feelings are portrayed very accurately on the sur- 
face of the face and are telegraphed silently to all who behold 
it. Consequently there is no way of disguising the real cause 
of a bad expression." 

There may be lotions for the complexion, tonics and brush- 
ings for the hair, care for the hands, etc., but unless the inner 
woman be under cultivation also, the veneer will not avail for 
long. 

If one should be under a hereditary cloud of ill-nature so 
that it is not natural to look for the bright side, it can be dis- 
persed by cultivating cheerfulness and amiability until the 
habit becomes established. To this end it will be of great as- 



106 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

sistance to practice Mrs. Talbot's Joy Lesson; which is to go 
to your room and lock the door , sit_ down by your reading- 
table, or dressing-table, and repeat the word Joy aloud. It will 
assist mental concentration on the thoughts of Joy, Peace and 
Love to tap with a pencil on the table as the word, or words, 
are repeated. Exclude all other thoughts ; and, after the mind 
becomes fixed strongly enough to attract the thought-element 
of gladness, ill-nature, or "the blues," will be banished as 
darkness fades before an influx of light. 

A writer to Freedom says : "While the principle of Life and 
Love exists we must claim its living reality in act, and in fea- 
ture, and its expression is Gladness. 

'*Glad of what ? Of everything. If you sweep crossings put 
your soul into your work while you sweep. Make clean your 
corner of the earth. The joy of any kind of work is in doing 
it as well as can be done. Try it and see how the act of concen- 
trating your attention upon what you are doing will deliver 
you from feeling that it is wearing or beneath you or any- 
thing that you don't want it to be. 

"Remember it is not the kind of work you are doing that 
will elevate or lower you in the evolution of the race. It is the 
attention that you give it that is helping to organize your men- 
tal faculties and lift you into a clearer consciousness." 

Unhappiness, moroseness, sourness of disposition result from' 
an unnatural bias of the mind. When a point of view makes 
one unhappy it is a wrong point. There may be checks, dis- 
appointments and even defeat, but if viewed from the right 
point they contain the germs of recompense. It is not that the 
problems of life have no true explanation when the sky of one's 
life is overcast, but that the exact place from which the skein 
can be raveled has not been reached. This is the way the 
master-mind of Emerson stated it : "Cause and effect, means 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 107 

and ends, seeds and fruit can not be severed ; for the effect al- 
ready blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the 
fruit in the seed. The changes which break up at short intervals 
the prosperity of men are advertisements of a nature whose law 
is growth." 

The Power of Habit. 

Man is but a bundle of acquired habits, says an ancient 
proverb. This is only true so long as life is allowed to flow in 
the channel of the least resistance. When it is discovered that 
any habit contains the germs of mistake which will bring a har- 
vest of mental and physical suffering, the human being who 
would continue the habit is not a well-developed specimen of 
the species. 

Youth is the habit-forming period, and, of course, may be 
saved disciplinary suffering if proper habits are instilled into the 
growing intelligence. At the same time the idea of the power 
of a positive mental attitude should be made known. Wrong 
habits may be crowded out by the substitution of proper habits 
in a positive mind. Submission to wrong habit acknowledges 
a weakness of mind. Youth needs that guidance from wisdom 
and experience which will enable it to control the life-forces 
which flow through each, particular organism. This assistance 
is best given by turning toward the developing young the potent 
power of thought, in which is positive recognition of inherent 
good. It adds just so much to the native strength of the youth, 
and so helps him to rise "by things that are under his feet/' 
Holland's verse says : 

"We rise by things that are under our feet ; 

By what we have mastered of good and gain ; 
By the pride deposed and the passion slain, 
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet" 



108 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 



The parent of all mischief is idleness. There is no point in 
the career of life where one can afford to be idle. Activity is 
the natural means for growth. If, in youth, the right means 
for the expression of vital force are not provided and directed, 
it must follow that the wrong means will be used, for life is 
expression. 

Each person, young or old, lives up to his or her ideas of 
happiness, according to the energy of the directing power, the 
will. It may be these ideals are contrary to the Law of hap- 
piness; if so, they will fail to realize happiness. The spirit of 
altruism should prompt every one to recognize the spark of di- 
vinity in his fellow-creature, and endeavor to help it to mature. 
Refuse to look at the wrong expressions of life, called sin, and 
direct toward the needy thoughts of good. Man, or woman, is 
not an isolated creature; the family is not an isolated creation; 
they are parts of the social organism, and rise toward happiness 
the more swiftly by endeavoring to elevate all. 

Julian Hawthorne thus summarizes an article on the one- 
ness of humanity : 

^'Philosophy discovers that mankind is one, and civilization 
confirms the revelation. 

"First comes the self-consciousness of the individual, then of 
the family ; afterward successively of the nation and the race. 
Humanity, begotten an unself -conscious unit, was splintered 
into fractions by self-consciousness ; and history shows us how 
it voluntarily recombines till it becomes a unit once more, every 
atom conscious of the whole, and the whole feeling through its 
component parts.'' 

"No man liveth to himself alone." 

Each one of us must hold himself a part of all we see, and 
by learning the higher laws overcome the lower. No time 
should be spent in repining : see mistakes and rise above them. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 109 

As our prophet of the morning said to a daughter, "Finish 
every day and be done with it. You have done what you 
could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in ; for- 
get them as soon as you can. Tomorrow will be a new day : 
begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cum- 
bered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and 
fair. It is too dear with its hopes and invitations to waste a 
moment on the yesterdays." 

So much for beautifying by means of self-culture. 

Beauty of Body and Beauty of SouL 

If beautifying the character reacts on the exterior, it is also 
true that care for the body has a beneficial reaction upon the 
intellect. The body is the house in which we live : it may be 
either the temple or the prison of the soul. Each person must 
look to the sanitation and beautifyingof his soul dwelling-place, 
or, like the material abodes, it may become foul, unhealthy and 
unfit as an abiding-place. The body is also the medium through 
which the Ego receives education. If care is not given to keep 
the delicate machine harmoniously working, advantages other- 
wise obtainable through health are closed. 

The Needs of the Body<. 

A healthy mind in a healthy body was the Grecian ideal, 
which, so long as that ideal adhered, caused Greece to lead the 
world. But Greece had not fully discovered the Law. She 
worked from the outside, whereas the Law means first the 
healthy mind. "In proportion as mind becomes pure and 
wholesome, habitations and environment are transformed as 
a resultant correspondence." The transformations result from 
mental culture. 



110 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

Let US consider the needs of the body under the heads of : 

Breathing, Dress, Rest, 

Diet, Work, Special Exercises. 

Bathing, Recreation, 

Breath is the first need of independent life. The babe's 
first cry which gladdens the mother's heart is his earliest phys- 
ical need for the air which shall be one of the chief sustainers of 
the life upon which he has entered. Throughout his earthly 
apprenticeship health, strength and the power of endurance de- 
pend mainly upon the breathing capacity. 

BREATHING* 

The physiologist Cutter describes the lungs as being "two in 
number, and occupy completely and accurately the pleural cham- 
bers of the thorax. Each lung is free in all directions, except 
at the root, which chiefly consists of the bronchi, arteries and 
veins connecting the lung with the trachea and heart. The 
lungs are spongy, porous organs, the tissues of which are very 
elastic. 

"Each lung is of a conical shape, the apexes of which are 
blunt and project into the neck from an inch to an inch and a 
half above the first rib. The base is broad and concave, and 
rests on the diaphragm. Each lung is divided by a deep fissure 
into upper and lower lobes. The upper lobe on the right side is 
imperfectly divided into two lobes, making three in the right 
and two in the left lung. The lobes are made of many closely 
packed lobules. Each lobule is composed of the terminal 
branch of an air-tube, possessing a cluster of air-cells. In the 
fine interstitial areolar tissue of the lobule ramify the pulmo- 
nary vessels, the nutrient vessels, the lymphatics and the 
nerves." 

Respiration introduces oxygen, a food, into the lungs, and 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. Ill 

by the diffusion of gases leaves some of it with the old air in the 
lobules and carries away carbonic acid gas — waste and poi- 
sonous product. The diffusion, or mixing, of gases is of the 
greatest importance in the economy of nature ; accumulation of 
poisonous gases is thus prevented, and the interchange of 
gases made possible, in organisms provided with lungs. 

Oxygen is the most abundant and the most important of all 
the elements. Through the process of osmosis, or the diffusion 
through a membrance, the blood attracts oxygen and gives up 
carbonic acid gas. Almost all of the chemical changes in the 
body are between the oxygen of the air and the carbon and hy- 
drogen of the food. When deprived of pure air the body is 
injured as much as when deprived of pure food — though in a 
different manner. 

There are two principal ways in which the body is deprived 
of needed oxygen : by lack of ventilation in the dwelling, and 
by tight clothing, which prevents elasticity of the trunk and 
chest. Both are very common violations of the law which 
makes breathing necessary to life. 

The Need of Fresh Air. 

The body needs, in pounds, three times as much air as it does 
food and drink combined ; yet so accustomed are people to eat 
and drink, and to breathe scantily, that the body is filled with 
disease and impurity. Morbid lungs mean morbid conditions 
in every function of the body. 

Ventilation is the process of keeping a standard of purity in 
occupied rooms, notwithstanding constant vitiation from res- 
piration and combustion through lighting and heating agencies. 
The changes by ventilation are partly through the diffusion of 
gases and partly by actual currents of air. Rooms must be pro- 
vided with an inlet for pure air and an outlet for vitiated air. 



113 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

The sleeping-room, in especial, should receive the necessary 
ventilation. Except in cases of heavy wind, excessive damp, 
or storm, the sleeping-room windows should never be closed. 

One-third of life is usually passed in sleep for the recupera- 
tion of powers for use and development in the other two-thirds. 
During sleep the body becomes unconscious of surrounding 
dangers, among the worst of which is vitiated air. There are 
no sleeping-rooms large enough to accommodate enough pure 
air to suffice one person's needs through the night. The inter- 
mixture cf the pure air in the room with the exhalations from 
the lungs makes the stored-up air less and less pure with each 
breath. 

In the temperate zone the forces of nature are efficient in 
changing the air in summer. Damages to the body are com- 
mon in winter for lack of attention to this very necessary pro- 
vision. Windows and doors are provided with "weather- 
strips'* to "keep out the cold;" doors are closed as quickly as 
possible ; windows never opened. In such houses the dispenser 
of drugs and medicines finds steady patronage, and the patients 
are always complaining that they can find "nothing that will 
help" them. There isn't anything to take the place of common 
sense, which teaches that unless there is abundance of pure air, 
pure water, pure food and plenty of sunshine normal health can 
not be maintained. The pioneer forefathers had abundance of 
pure air and sunshine, which largely made up for what was 
lacking in other ways. Had they not overtaxed themselves 
with muscular exertion and their wives with excessive child- 
bearing as well as labor, their descendants would not be the 
puny things they are. * 

The best recognized method for the ventilation of houses — 
sleeping-rooms particularly — is by means of the open fire. The 
upward current provided thereby draws away the vitiated air. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 113 

It is necessary, however, that the supply of pure air come from 
without, the best place being from the lower part of an opened 
window. The Encyclopedia Britannica makes the following 
note on this subject : 

"The absence of proper inlets for air in a house where sev- 
eral fires are burning involves a danger that is much more seri- 
ous than other effects of bad ventilation. When the air which 
is required to take the place of that discharged by the chimneys 
can only struggle in through small openings, the pressure 
within the house falls considerably below that of the outer air, 
the water-traps under basins and closets are liable to be forced, 
and foul air is drawn in from every leak in soil-pipe or drain. 
The writer has found a house drawing what seemed to be its 
main supply of Afresh' air from the public sewer, through a de- 
fective joint between the soil-pipe and the (untrapped) house- 
drain. 

"To preserve the lowest standard of purity tolerated by sani- 
tarians, ventilation must go on at the rate per person of i,ooo 
cubic feet per hour, and 3,000 cubic feet per hour are required 
to preserve the higher standard on which some authorities in- 
sist. Parkes advises a supply of 2,000 cubic feet per hour for 
persons in health, and 3,000 or 4,000 cubic feet per hour for 
sick persons." 

Ventilation should be accom.plished without creating too 
great a fall of temperature. Living-rooms should not be kept 
too warm, so that the lungs experience too great a change when 
in the open air, as every person should be for a part of each day. 
American homes are commonly super-heated. 

There should be no damper, if a stove is used, in sleeping- or 
sitting-rooms, so that the products of combustion may pass 
freely out at the chimney. Vessels containing water should be 
placed near the fire on a heating-stove to preserve a good de- 



114 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

[^ree of moisture in the room. Cook-stoves should be provided 
with a hood built so as to project over the stove, for the purpose 
of conveying away vapors that arise from cooking. Especially 
in winter are the vapors confined if an outlet is not provided, 
so that the occupant of the culinary department is subjected to 
a steaming not intended for herself. Attacks of chill are thus 
very easily incurred. 

The Deadly Corset. 

In addition to poor ventilation a large percentage of the 
female half of civilization have the trunk of the body ligatured 
so tightly that a full, deep breath is an impossibility. 

The corset is an inheritance from the past for which we are 
not grateful. Its aim is directed toward securing slenderness 
and shapeliness of the human figure, but which falls short, in 
every direction, of attaining any beneficial result. The custom 
of wearing this garment has created a model that few women 
have strength of mind enough not to follow, although it is 
immeasurably better to follow good principles than bad fash- 
ions. To be able to have a healthy body in which full breathing 
is practicable there must be no restriction to muscular action 
from neck to toe. There must be perfect freedom to have per- 
fect development. 

In the human body the bony frame-work of the ribs furnishes 
protection to the upper chest, or corset suicides would be more 
numerous. As it is, the floating ribs are cramped and dis- 
torted, displacing the internal organs. In the economy of the 
body each organ has its own place as well as its own function ; 
there are no cavities or vacant spaces. Altogether they furnish 
the machinery by which life is expressed. Nor can one be dis- 
placed, or its use set at naught, without overtaxing and injuring 
other organs of the system. That the lower part of the body 
was not provided with a bony frame-work must mean that the 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 115 

organs contained therein should have unrestricted action. All 
the needed support to the abdominal viscera is furnished by the 
small ligamentous band which suspends each organ, and by 
the abdominal wall, which is composed of three layers of 
muscles. 

Suppose an arm or a leg should, from puberty, be subjected 
to constant pressure during the day. Would not that member 
in time become comparatively useless? Yet the digestive, re- 
spiratory and part of the circulatory systems are compressed 
and hindered until good health is impossible. 

Commiseration for sins against the moral law is very scant. 
Every person who transgresses is considered worthy to receive 
the punishment which follows in the wake. Transgressions 
against the physical are as inevitable and as just. Old Dr. 
Johnson hit the truth when he said, "Every sick man is a ras- 
cal," though the rascality may consist only in self-injury. 
Women are "the weaker sex" because they have made them- 
selves so, the violations of physical law reflecting in the mental 
and spiritual realm. Miss Willard said this: "Niggardly 
waists and niggardly brains go together. The emancipation 
of one will keep place with the other ; a ligature at the smallest 
diameter of the womanly figure means an impoverished blood 
supply in the brain, and may explain why women scream when 
they see a mouse." In her life-time Miss Willard was one of 
the true students of cause and effect. 

Dr. Ellis says : "The practice of tight lacing has done more 
within the last century toward the physical deterioration of 
civilized man than have war, pestilence and famine combined." 

Dr. Foote says : "Tight lacing is a practice more destruc- 
tive to health and longevity than tobacco-chewing, liquor-drink- 
ing or pork-eating." 
/ 



116 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 

The German physiologist Somering enumerates ninety-two 
diseases resulting from corset-wearing. 

Madame Yale gives the following list of the corset's crimes 
against beauty : 

"i. Stiff, inflexible waists, with a coarsely exaggerated con- 
tour in place of slight and subtle curves. 

"2. Sickly, sallow complexion. 

"3. Pale, thin, compressed lips. 

"4. Red noses. 

"5. Lack of buoyancy, general feebleness, lassitude, apathy 
and stupidity. 

"6. Distorted features. 

"7. Soured tempers. 

"8. Wrinkles. 

"9. Lusterless eyes. 
"10. Ugly shoulders. 
"11. Ugly bust. 

"12. Clumsiness. (Corsets render any woman more or less 
inelegant and ungraceful in her movements. Her imprisoned 
waist, with its flabby unused muscks, has no chance of per- 
forming beautiful undulating movements.) 

"For the corset as a bust support there are now any number 
of better substitutes. But women should distrust any kind of 
a 'support' which antagonizes the foundation principle of phys- 
ical development, viz., the perfect muscular possession of the 
body." 

Dr. Richardson says : "If tomorrow women were placed in 
all respects on an equality with men they would remain subject 
to superior mental and physical force so long as they crippled 
their physical, vital and mental constitution by this one practice 
of cultivating, under an atrocious view of what is beautiful, a 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 117 

form of body which reduces physical power and thereby dead- 
ens mental capacity." 

Dr. Kitchen says : "The whole civilized world is in bondage 
to a pernicious habit of dress — practiced by women and coun- 
tenanced by men — that threatens the abrogation of the dia- 
phragm. Were it not for the nightly recesses which the dia- 
phragm receives from the constricting pressure of the tight 
waist, it would soon atrophy, and life to the corset-wearer 
would be a very brief span." 

Again the same author says : "The corset on a child is slow 
murder of the child, and if she be of a phthisical or consumptive 
tendency it is not so very slow murder either. * * Every 
woman who has grown up in a corset, no matter how loosely 
worn, is deformed." 

Quotations and argument against this vain and foolish gar- 
ment might be indefinitely prolonged. The devotee of fashion, 
rather than be a follower of natural law, will continue violations 
unless pain and suffering call a halt. Perhaps when ordered 
by her physician to lay aside the corset she may begin to imbibe 
ideas relating to habit and health. Growth is from withi-n. 
"The first indication that a woman's mind and soul are expand- 
ing is when she lays aside her corset." While she adheres to it 
she is impaired as a human being, emasculate as a representative 
of her sex. In her the creature without power to love is found ; 
in her are found wanting the elements necessary to make an 
equal factor in the human race with man. The woman who 
begins the day by putting on a corset with her morning gown 
for fear of being called untidy, and for the same reason con- 
tinues wearing it through the day, is she who is ungenerous, 
illiberal, fault-finding. If her views of life were large and true 
she could not be so unkind to her own body as to hinder its 
most vital processes. 



118 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

Women's environment and heritage from the past have 
largely made them dependent upon men. Consequently when 
the understanding of man is great enough to make him a prac- 
tical enemy of the corset it will be put aside. As Ella Wheeler 
Wilcox says : 

"All we have done, wise or otherwise, 
Traced to the root, was done for love of you." 

Girls at home, longing for a moment's personal comfort, 
lay aside the corset, and are met with reproach or ridicule from 
brother or father for being "slouchy." Wives often receive the 
same remarks. Both the use and reception of those ideas are 
based upon ignorance. A woman sure of the righteousness of 
her cause can expound to the male relative the virtues of not 
wearing the corset. But she should not, and need not, be 
slouchy. A man conversant with natural law can do much to 
enable a beloved one to see the right. Or at the extreme, he can 
improve by the recommendation of a writer to Physical Cul- 
ture, who says : "The writer does not expect to reform women. 
He wants to reform men — desires them to see clearly the neces- 
sity of marrying women — not sexless nonentities; by this 
means the reform of women will the sooner be accomplished." 

Gerald Massey said : "No woman has any right to marry 
anything less than a man. 

"No woman has any right to marry any man who will sow 
the seeds of disease in her darlings ; no, not for all the money 
in the world." 

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. No 
man in whom is the true spirit of manliness will marry a corset- 
wearer. He has the right to demand a reform before marriage ; 
and he must assist all in his power to aid to mental growth 
so that the garment which does so much to undermine health 
will never be assumed again. 



I 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 119 

The habit of corset-wearing may be likened to the drink 
habit in men. Equal damage is done to the soul and body of 
the slave, and an equal heritage of mental and physical weak- 
ness is bequeathed to posterity. 

The proportionate figure should have a waist measurement 
equal to two-fifths the height ; the weight should be as follows : 

4 feet 10 inches lOO pounds 

5 feet o inches no pounds 

5 feet I inch 115 pounds 

5 feet 2 inches 120 pounds 

5 feet 3 inches 125 pounds 

5 feet 4 inches 130 pounds 

5 feet 5 inches 135 pounds 

5 feet 6 inches 140 pounds 

5 feet 7 inches 146 pounds 

5 feet 8 inches 153 pounds 

5 feet 9 inches 161 pounds 

5 feet 10 inches 170 pounds 

5 feet 1 1 inches 180 pounds 

6 feet o inches 191 pounds 

Clothing that in any way hampers the body must be laid 
aside for other garments that allow freedom. Deep breathing 
can and should be consciously cultivated; for the integrity of 
health largely depends on aeration of the blood. MxS. Le 
Favre says: "When it is understood that there are upward 
of a hundred million air-cells in the lungs and that each and 
every cell is intended for use, we get a notion of the tremendous 
importance of Lung Culture." "Remember that it is not more 
fat nor harder muscle that is to save the world from consump- 
tion, but larger and more mobile chest walls and the ability 
to keep the entire lungs actively engaged." 



120 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

In all movement the chest should lead ; the abdomen be well 
drawn in ; the vital organs raised. 

If mankind were stationary improvement would be impos- 
sible. For the fact that we are not we should be duly grateful. 
The female figure and female health can be improved, after 
years of disobedience to natural law, by facing about and fol- 
lowing the right path. As onward she may press toward 
physical and spiritual perfection any woman will win strength 
according to her needs. 

DIET* 

In diet no specific regulations can be given that will apply 
in all cases. Each individual must decide for himself as to 
that which best nourishes. Dr. Charles H. Shepard says : *lt 
is what we eat and drink that makes or mars our condition. 
If we partake only of the pure we shall be clean and pure 
throughout. If, on the contrary, we attempt to build up with 
gross material it will result in uncleanliness, disease and 
death." 

A Japanese proverb says that it is not what we eat but what 
we digest that builds up the body. Food may contain many 
elements of nourishment, but if not acceptable to one's indi- 
vidual powers of digestion and assimilation, to him it is the 
same as if no nutrition was contained therein. 

Humankind is largely governed by the sense of taste. In 
one part of the globe the food used may be revolting to inhabi- 
tants of another. Dr. Foote says : ^^]o\\n Chinaman feasts on 
cats, dogs, wharf rats, sea slugs, sharks, bats, and caterpillar 
soup. Australians and many other people eat snakes, kanga- 
roo-rats, mice, maggots, etc. The Japanese prefer green 
peaches, apricots and plums to ripe ones, as an offset, I sup- 
pose, to our eating green cucumbers. One who visits Africa 
may have a plate of tender young monkey; v-^hile Jthe people 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 121 

of the Arctics treat their visitors to a diet of putrid seal's 
flesh, putrid whale's tail, reindeer's chyle, and partially hatched 
eggs." 

It would be hard to find anything of either the animal or 
vegetable worlds without some nourishing properties as food. 
If the sense of taste were not largely perverted it could be 
trusted to select food for the system; but in early life, before 
any of the powers are ready to discriminate, all manner and 
conditions of food are given until digestion is deranged and 
taste is made abnormal. Often, it is true, depraved taste is 
inherited, but more often it is cultivated. Few mothers realize 
the need for feeding infants regularly. Every expression of 
pain or discomfort is met with proffers of food, until the 
sense of taste becomes the ruling propensity during childhood, 
and often through life. Pleasing the sense of taste is the open 
door to pleasing other bodily senses ; and as the body lives by 
that upon which it feeds, whole trains of evils are engendered 
by abnormal taste. 

Dear Froebel, lover of children and of humanity, said: 
"Always let the food be simply for nourishment, never more, 
never less. Never should the food be taken for its own sake, 
but for the sake of promoting bodily and mental activity. Still 
less should the peculiarities of food, its taste as a delicacy, ever 
become an object in themselves, but only a means to make it 
good, pure, wholesome nourishment; else in both cases the 
food destroys health. Let the food of the little child be as 
simple as the circumstances in which the child lives can afford, 
and let it be given in proportion to his bodily and mental 
activity." 

Simplicity and Moderation. 

A general rule for application to dietetics is simplicity. The 
craving for hot spices, fermented drinks, fetid cheese, all highly 



122 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 



seasoned epicurean delights, is acquired artificially. Whenever 
possible the young should be taught that simplicity in eating 
means mental and bodily strength. "Frugality has cured dis- 
eases that defied all other remedies," Dr. Felix Oswald tells 
us. *'For thousands of reformed gluttons it has made life 
worth living after the shadows of misery already threatened 
to darken the gloom of approaching night. Luigi Cornaro, a 
Venetian nobleman of the sixteenth century, had impaired his 
health by gastronomic excesses till his physicians despaired 
of his life. As a last resort he resolved to try a complete 
change of diet. His father, his uncles and two of his brothers 
had all died before the attainment of their fiftieth year; but 
Luigi determined to try conclusions with the demon of un- 
naturalism, and at once reduced his daily allowance of meat 
to one-tenth of the usual quantity, and his wine to a stint 
barely sufficient to flavor a cup of Venetian cistern water. 
After a month of his new regimen he regained his appetite. 
After ten weeks he found himself able to take long walks 
without fatigue and could sleep without being awakened by 
nightmare horrors. At the end of a year all the symptoms of 
chronic indigestion had left him and he resolved to make the 
plan of his cure the rule of his life. That life was prolonged 
to a century — forty years of racking disease followed by sixty 
years of unbroken health, undim'med clearness of mind, un- 
clouded content. Habitual abstinence from unnatural food and 
drink saves the trials of constant self-control and the alterna- 
tive pangs of repentance." 



The Secret of Long: Life* 

In the eighty-sixth year of his life Luigi Cornaro wrote 
a treatise on "The Way of Attaining a Long and Healthful 
Life," in which he said : 'T was born very choleric and hasty; 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 123 

I flew into a passion for the least trifle ; I huffed all mankind, 
and was so intolerable that a great many persons of repute 
avoided my company. I apprehended the injury which 
I did myself; I knew that anger is a real frenzy; that 
it disturbs our judgment; that it transports us be- 
yond ourselves, and that the difference between a passionate 
and a mad man is only this, that the latter has lost his reason 
forever and the former is only deprived of it by fits. A sober 
life cured me of this frenzy; by its assistance I became so 
moderate and so much a master of my passion that nobody 
could perceive that it was born with me. 

"A man may likewise with reason and a regular life correct 
a bad constitution, and, notwithstanding the tenderness thereof, 
may live a long time in good health. I should never have 
seen forty years had I followed all my inclinations, and yet I 
am in the eighty-sixth year of my age. If the long and dan- 
gerous distempers which I had in my youth had not consumed 
a great deal of the radial moisture the loss of which is irre- 
parable, I might have promised myself to have lived a complete 
century. But without flattering myself I find it to be a great 
matter to have arrived to forty-six years more than I ever 
expected, and that in my old age my constitution is still so good 
that not only my teeth, my voice, my memory and my heart 
are in as good a condition as ever they were in the briskest 
days of my youth, but likewise my judgment has lost nothing 
of its clearness and force. 

*'I am of the opinion that this proceeds from the abridg- 
ment I make of my food." 

Abuses of the digestive powers have contributed more than 
other causes to human degeneration. When those lose tone 
or vigor the body must depend on the breathing powers more 
heavily. But oxygen must needs have material upon which 



124 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

to operate, and it is only through the digestive system the 
supply can come. 

Those guilty of the sin of overeating fill the blood with 
more material than can properly be aerated, and thus create 
disease. Then the digestive apparatus weakens. 

Dr. Salisbury's System* 

Dr. Salisbury some years ago originated a very valuable 
system of treating disease by giving the system just as little 
food as would preserve vitality. Mrs. Stuart, an English lady, 
elaborated the system, and has been very successful in curing 
disease of long standing. The treatment consists of the 
stomach bath first. An hour and a half before meals as much 
hot water is taken as can be relished, but which should not be 
less than a pint. This washes away any impurity and gives 
the walls of the stomach the tonic action of water. For the 
meal nothing is to be taken but minced lean beef, as being the 
easiest of digestion. One is not limited as to quantity, or as to 
ways of preparing it, except that salt and pepper and a little 
butter are to be the only seasoning. Before breakfast, dinner, 
supper and retiring the hot water is to be used. 

For any disease resulting from bad digestive powers, such 
as dyspepsia, chronic diarrhea, constipation, leanness, obesity, 
etc., the system is admirable. One will feel weak for a few 
days, as the drunkard whose cups are withheld, but persistence 
for forty-eight hours makes cure sure and almost easy. 

Proper Combinations of Food. 

As to the combinations of foods for the rule of life, there 
should be but few varieties at one meal. The chemical activi- 
ties necessary for digesting a great variety are so widely differ- 
ent the system is apt to be overtaxed. Simplicity should rule. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 125 

Foods should be solid. The agents in digestion are fluid, and 
when fluids are taken with the meals, these are diluted, and 
consequently delay in digestion results. During the delay fer- 
mentation sets in and renders much that might be assimilated 
unfit for use. Cooked food and raw food generally do not 
combine well. 

"Heajth Culture" says : "Fresh fruits all combine well with 
one another. As a rule fruits, fresh or cooked, combine well 
with bread or cooked cereals and with nuts or nut foods. 
Fruits do not as a rule combine well with cooked vegetables, 
nor with milk, cream, cheese, eggs or meat." 

As to the use of a mixed diet of animal and vegetable foods, 
every one has a choice. Vegetarian people argue a beautiful, 
clean doctrine, but one is never ready for an experiment until 
fully convinced of its virtues. A few rules for guidance may 
be summed up as follows : 

Do not overeat. 

Do not take liquids at meals. 

Do not partake of a variety. 

Masticate thoroughly. 

Never take food unless hungry. 

Be cheerful during meal-time. Cheerfulness aids digestion. 

Under the old-time severe church rule all recreation was 
suppressed over Sunday, the day the toilers had for rest. 
Consequently dietetic excesses became prevalent. Sunday be- 
came a day of good dinners and unlimited drinking. New 
England and much of the rest of the United States spend 
weary hours Saturday to provide gustatory delights for the 
Sabbath. It is the rest-day diversion and mother of many ills. 



126 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

THE BATH* 

Bathing is very necessary for the preservation of health. 
The processes of nutrition and waste, to be kept normal, need 
that waste be regularly removed. Generally used, the term 
bath refers to treatment given the skin and hair. The skin is 
one of four means the body has for eliminating impurity ; the 
others are the lun^s, kidneys, and lower bowel. For the pur- 
pose of elimination and also for regulating bodily temperature, 
the skin is provided with two and a quarter millions of little 
glands. The external openings are called the pores of the 
skin. These glands are situated in the connective tissue be- 
neath the skin, in the shape of a coil ; on the outside of the coil 
is a network of capillaries from which perspiration is derived. 
It is estimated that there are not far from three thousand of 
these glands to the square inch, and that they eliminate from 
one to five pounds of fluid in twenty-four hours. The fluid 
evaporates or is absorbed by the clothing; the solid impurity 
remains at the surface. The bath removes this impurity. If 
the bath is neglected the impurity becomes rancid, and more 
or less of it is re-absorbed into the body to create disease. 
Besides the impurity left through perspiration there are alsO' 
the scales of dead scarf-skin and the oily matter which is 
secreted to preserve the texture of the skin. None can with im- 
punity neglect the removal of all of this waste. 

For a person in health there should be a daily sponge 
bath, supplemented twice a week by a full warm bath with 
plenty of soap. This will keep the glands of the skin in activ- 
ity. The bath should never be taken where the temperature is 
/ower than 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Chill must be avoided. 
Be brisk and keep the blood vigorously circulating; use plenty 
of friction when drying the body. • There should be a glow on 
the surface when done, to show there has been a good reaction. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 127 

Various Kinds of Baths« 

In delicate health, or disease, there are a variety of baths 
which are invaluable to restore health. 

The vapor bath is excellent for colds, catarrh, pleurisy, fever, 
and affections of the bowels, kidneys or skin. The perspiratory 
glands are excited to unusual activity and bear out, at least in 
part, the morbific matter. There are many cabinets on the 
market for hot-air and vapor baths, but a home-made apparatus 
answers quite well. This consists of an alcohol lamp over 
which is placed a small vessel containing water. When the 
water boils place a cane-seat chair over the lamp, and seat the 
patient therein, clad only "in her complexion" ; wrap blankets 
about the chair and patient very closely. A footbath may be 
used in connection herewith; let the patient place her feet in 
a bath hot as can be borne, and enclose with the blankets. After 
some moments of free perspiration a dry cover should be sub- 
stituted and the patient lie in bed wrapped about closely. 
When cooled enough, she may have a dry rub and resume her 
garments. 

The hot-air bath is taken much as the vapor bath. Use 
the alcohol lamp without the vessel of water; let the patient 
drink freely of hot water. Cold may be used, but is not best. 
After several minutes of free perspiration the body should be 
thoroughly shampooed with soap and water and dried. This 
is excellent for gout, rheumatism, skin diseases, colds, etc. 

Where there is fever or inflammation in any one part, the 
circulation may be equalized by a hot foot-bath; as in head- 
aches, bronchitis, or inward fever. 

The sitz bath is arranged for bathing the hips and abdomen. 
It may be tepid or hot, as the case requires. During pregnancy 
the tepid sitz bath is invaluable, used daily for the last few 
weeks; during labor the pains are made easier and more 



128 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

natural by the hot sitz bath. It is good in case of bladder, 
rectal or kidney disorders. 

Sulphur, salt, or other mineral baths are to be had by adding 
any such to the water used. 

Do not bathe within two hours after eating. 

Do not bathe when exhausted. 

Avoid chill after bathing. 

Use mild soap, so as not to irritate the skin. 

Never bathe in a cold room unless very vigorous in health. 



PART IL 




CHAPTER IV. 

The Temple of the Soul — Continual 

ATER for use internally is as much needed as 
water for external use. Every adult, or at least 
every family, should have a fountain syringe, 
''^ which should be used two or three times a week 
with regularity. The lower bowel is not merely the recep- 
tacle for the refuse of food matter; it also is provided with 
absorbents, which convey away whatever is possible from 
the colon, leaving hard, impacted masses to be passed away. 
'Patients with stomach trouble have been nourished by food 
injected into the colon. 

The Internal Batlu 

It has generally been considered sufficient if there is one 
passage daily from the bowels. This is true only so far as 
that one bath weekly is sufficient for the external body. But 
suppose any chronic disease has taken hold ; it is then the bath 
external and internal becomes a wonderful restorative agent. 

The benefits of cleansing the stomach and lower bowel by 
means of hot water are manifold. The stomach bath washes 
away any mucus or undigested food and prepares the way for 
a fresh food supply. It should be used an hour to an hour and 
a half before meals, to give the gastric glands time for accumu- 
lation of their juice. The impurity thus washed away is 
carried into the colon and discharged. 

Flushing the colon consists of the use of a quantity of hot 
water by means of the syringe. Dr. Forrest says : "The ben- 

129 



130 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

efits of the flushings are not due to the cleansing of the cana! 
alone. Indeed we doubt whether this is its principal benefit. 
The introduction of hot water has a direct and powerful effect 
on the nerves of the stomach, liver and kidneys, and all the 
organs, stimulating them to vigorous and healthy action. The 
evidence of this is, the increased appetite which follows the 
flushing; the increased flow of bile from the liver; the decided 
increase in the amount of urine eliminated by the kidneys; 
and the general increase in strength." 

To use the flushing sufficiently it is best to use a little water 
first to unload the rectum; after that use three, four, five or 
more quarts of hot water until the colon is quite distended, 
so that the effete matter has no chance to be packed away in the 
loculi. 

It is well to take this internal bath on the evenings when 
the full warm bath is taken, and retire immediately. This 
avoids any exposure to chill one might otherwise risk. 

It is quite as "natural" to cleanse the alimentary canal as 
it is to wash the external surface of the body. Many things 
Nature left for man to discover, not the least of which were 
the uses of water. 

HYGIENIC DRESS. 

The care of the body in the matter of clothing varies with 
race and clime. Each race has its foibles respecting dress 
which only culture can overcome. In the more enlightened 
races there has been evolution in dress. There is change con- 
stantly under the name of Fashion, but by easy stages a system 
is being evolved that clothes without injuring the body. Elas- 
ticity, warmth and lightness are the objects to be soughi. 
Appropriateness is also a huge item. From neck to toe there 
should be freedom, although the inventive genius of ages has 



i 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 131 

labored to circumvent it. It is only when woman awakens to 
her individual needs that she declares against bands, steels, 
bones and stays. Healthful dress is compatible with artistic 
dress. Mrs. Talbot says: "That which leaves the body un- 
trammeled is beautiful, provided the covering is for use, not 
for adornment only." * 

Underclothing:* 

The choice of underclothing is of prime importance. It 
has been made of numerous layers with bands, ruffles, tucks 
and starch galore. Madame La Favre says : "There is not one 
single, solitary instance in which starch improves wearing ap- 
parel for man, woman or child." In former generations it 
was deemed necessary for women to wear innumerable petti- 
coats to disguise the fact that they had legs. These were 
crisply starched, and, with the weight over the abdomen and 
hips, were eminently sufficient to make the delicate creature 
who was at one time the fashion. 

The union undergarment has largely replaced the drawers 
and chemise of long ago. For summer the garment is of 
knee length with no sleeves; for winter it reaches from wrist 
to ankle. Finely woven cotton or linen is the preferred ma- 
terial. Silk is not durable; wool is too warm and also irritates 
the flesh of many. Prof. Warman says : "Woolen underwear 
is warm and is most universally worn. This is a common 
verdict, and, I grant you, it is true. It is warm. It is too 
warm for underwear. It overheats, then chills the body. All 
underclothing should permit free transpiration from the skin ; 
otherwise, colds and other bad consequences follow. 

"Wool as an outer garment? That is quite another ques- 
tion. The very fact that wool is a slow absorbent renders it 
the very best material for overgarments, especially in humid 
climates and in seasons where protection against atmospheric 



182 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

moisture is required. The outer clothing should be a poor 
absorbent, the underclothing a good absorbent of moisture; 
therefore the very condemnation 6i the one is the strongest 
commendation of the other." 

When the thermometer hovers about the freezing point the 
extremities should be well protected. For the feet there should 
be closely-woven, fleece-lined hose, and strong shoes. For out- 
door wear, the nether limbs should be encased in warm eques- 
trian tights; the feet in overshoes. There need be but one 
petticoat. If it is made after the Jenness-Miller model — that 
is, divided — except in very cold weather the equestrian tights 
may be left off. The Syrian skirt — the divided skirt gathered 
and fastened about the knee — is a good winter garment. These 
divided petticoats are made on a rather wide yoke, to avoid a 
too great fullness at the hips. Undergarments are purely use- 
ful and not decorative in their service. Many cling to the 
idea of daintiness rather than usefulness ; to them it is of little 
worth to appeal for a discarding of beflounced petticoats, 
corset-covers, chemises, drawers, etc., etc. 

Sensible and Artistic Gowns* 

The gowns may be decorative as well as useful. The street 
and visiting gowns may follow conventional design if you will, 
but oh ! my sisters, belong to yourselves at your homes. Wear 
the artistic Josephine, or Empire gown, for leisure, and a 
washable fabric for your work, short of waist and short of 
skirt. Give your waist room for action and your chest room 
for expansion. 

If you are a business woman, have the gown of tailor's 
cloth, with the skirt built upon the gown form; the front of 
the waist may be decorated in imitation of the shirt waist; 
the jacket of the Eton or Blazer style. Do not crowd your 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 133 

lungs, stomach, liver and all internal organs by girting your- 
self with corsets, tight waists and bands. 

One of the most alert and attractive business women the 
writer ever knew wore such a gown, with the skirt well lined 
and stiffened, and no petticoat. Her entire wearing apparel 
for the time was shoes and stockings, union undergarment 
and dress. The cold weather suggested the equestrian tights, 
outside wraps and overshoes. Contrast this garb with that of 
the conventional female! 

The author of "The Evolution of Woman" says the sex 
dresses with deference to men. So while striving to awaken 
women to the dangers of constriction the call must extend to 
men. The following extract is from that volume : 

Male Prejadice to Overcome^ 

"For the reason that the female of the human species has 
so long been under subjection to the male, the styles of female 
dress and adornment which have been adopted and which are 
still in vogue are largely the result of ma'sculine taste. Wo- 
man*s business in life has been to marry, or, at least, it has been 
necessary for her, in order to gain her support, to win the favor 
of the opposite sex. She must, therefore, by her charms capti- 
vate the male. 

"The girl at the ball with the wasp waist and the greatest 
number of furbelows is never a wall-flower and her numbers 
never go unfilled. The fashionably dressed young woman in 
the horse-car is never permitted to stand, and in shops attended 
by men she never lacks attention. The gaudy dress, the 
pinched feet, and the pink complexion, although false, of the 
actress, young or old, never fail to attract a host of male 
admirers. • 

"As for thousands of years women have been dependent on 



lo-l THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

men not only for food and clothing, but for the luxuries of 
life as well, it is not singular that in the struggle for life to 
which they have been subjected they should have adopted the 
style of dress which would be likely to secure to them the 
greatest amount of success. When we remember that the 
present ideas of becomingness or propriety in woman's apparel 
are the result of ages of sensuality and servitude, .it is not 
remarkable that they are difficult to uproot, especially so as 
many of the most pernicious and health-destroying styles in- 
volve questions of decorum as understood by a sensualized age. 

**Not long ago I chanced to overhear a conversation be- 
tween two American girls in Berlin, one of whom had been 
a resident of that city for several years, and was therefore 
acquainted with the prevailing idea of female decorum as ex- 
pressed by female apparel. These girls were speaking of dress, 
and the later arrival on German soil, the younger of the two, 
remarked : *As for me, I never wear corsets.' Whereupon the 
elder, shocked at such a confession, replied, Then you certainly 
never can dance in Germany, for the German officers who 
would detect your state of undress would think you immodest, 
and would certainly take advantage of the situation to annoy 
you.' This is an illustration of the manner in which male 
prejudice thwarts any attempt of women to adopt a style of 
dress better suited to their health, convenience and taste. The 
same obstacles have been encountered by those women who 
have been sufficiently courageous to attempt to free their ankles 
from the cumbersome skirts so detrimental to health and so 
destructive to the free use of the legs." 

But, dear ladies, have convictions on the harmfulness of 
ordinary dress and then live up to them, at the very least in 
your own homes. Your home is your castk wherein you must 
ever strive to be your very best self. You may not like to 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 135 

offend the prejudices of people among whom you live, but first 
duty is to self — to make self strong, generous and true. By 
that means prejudice can be outlived, overcome, vanquished. 
The Chinese Minister, Wu Ting Fang, said that women who 
wear corsets cannot bear noble sons, and that decollete dress 
is indecent. Minister Wu, despite the inborn traditions of his 
race, has reached a wise conclusion regarding Caucasian dress 
for women. After all, the proper conventions, styles and man- 
nerisms are matters of geography. One can never afford to be 
enslaved thereby. 

WORK* 

As TO WORK, Fra Elbertus says : "Blessed is that man who 
has found his work," which in this case includes woman. All 
human effort should have a clearly-defined purpose, and be 
cultivated toward definite ends. Nothing can be more unhappy 
than that man or woman should be laboring in any field of 
work for which he or she is not adapted. 

That work is best which serves some useful end. No one 
advances who is not armed with skill for some effort whereby 
society is benefited. On this subject Charlotte Perkins Stetson 
says: "Work is not an individual process, but a collective 
one. It involves division of labor and exchange of products. 
It is something you do for others while others do something 
for you. It is practical, profitable altruism. 

"It is most distinctively human because human interests 
are most interdependent. We cannot be human at all without 
common effort for common good. 

"It is apparent to any one that the mere existence of society 
depends on work, that the nature of a given society depends 
on the nature of its work, that the further progress of society 
depends on the progress of its work; and also that the indi- 



136 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

vidual finds his best happiness in his best work — his worst 
punishment in uncongenial forced labor, or that last horror, 
forced idleness. 

"No expression of energy of sufficiently high grade to be 
called 'work' is done to gratify one's self. In the very nature as 
work it is done for some one else. 

"The individual may be led to do it by self-interest, drawn 
into the social service through his sub-social desires; but the 
work is for others. 

"We are urged to seek food through the irritation of an 
empty stomach, called appetite, but the processes of nutrition 
are not for the gratification of 'the appetite, but for the nour- 
ishment of the body. 

"If work were done for individual ends why should we not 
impose on one another ? It is because of our false notion that 
it is a personal matter done for personal gratification that we 
see everywhere the private interest working against the com- 
mon interest; and the world is clogged and injured by bad 
work, and it is because of this same false notion — that work is 
something you do for yourself and would not do if you did not 
have to — that we so foolishly misjudge the work axid the 
worker.'* 

The Rigfht Direction of Energry^ 

Activity for mental, spiritual and bodily powers is a neces- 
sity. If energy is not expressed in a right direction it will be 
in a wrong direction. When expressed right the individual 
develops; when expressed wrong he deteriorates. This is the 

law. 

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the 
ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when 
it ought to be done, whether you like it or not," says Prof. 
Huxley. "It is the first lesson which ought to be learned, and 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 137 

however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last 
lesson he learns thoroughly." This is true because the dignity 
of work has not been understood. We will not wish to put 
off what should be done when we once know that order is put 
out of plumb by our so doing. 

Service, some kind of useful service, performed to the best 
of one's ability and skill, is the world's need. They who labor 
not with brain and hand have no real claims to respect. 

RECREATION- 

Recreation is the activity one seeks as a change from 
the business of his life, and is as necessary as that business. 
The brain-worker needs physical recreation, the muscle-worker 
needs menial recreation; both need social recreation. It is a 
false system of economy that calls for all of the working 
moments to be expended in labor. One degenerates into a 
machine, whose labor only brings fuel to the sustenance of 
life. Work should be more than that one may win food for 
the stomach and shelter for the body. One should have pleas- 
ure in his work and pleasure in his recreation — ^pleasure of the 
kind that warms and thrills the soul. There is a kind of pleas- 
ure partaken of during leisure hours that destroys. This is 
not true recreation. The alcohol habit, the tobacco habit, the 
confection habit, the habit of sexual intemperance, all react 
with blightsome vengeance on those who so seek diversion 
from their labors. Bodily senses are all for useful purposes, 
but to please the sense regardless of the object of the sense 
brings unhappiness for soul or body, or both, sooner or later. 

The best recreation is that which best fits one for a success- 
ful discharge of his duties. But a week or two of summer 
vacation will not make up for the violations of health during 
the rest of the year. When we have learned to "obey and 



r^ THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

live" there will be some recreation and rest interlarded with 
work throughout the year in addition to the summer vacation. 

Recreation means all things to all men — and women. Some 
go to resorts by mountain or sea, where the strenuous life 
is not lost for a moment; some go hunting and fishing; some 
merely camp out near to nature's heart and rest. The last 
appeals most strongly to the unconventional type. 

In taking "to the woods" for a summer's outing it should 
be borne in mind that disease is often contracted by drinking 
from unused wells or stagnant pools. The appetite, too, is 
stimulated by free life and outdoor exercise, and there will be 
tendencies toward intemperance in diet, which should bj5 
nipped in the bud. 

Dr. Oswald says: "We should teach our children that a 
healthy mind can dwell only in a healthy body, and that he 
who pretends to find. no time to take care of his health is a 
workman who thinks it a waste of time to care for his tools." 

REST* 

Rest-time is the time when the conscious forces of the 
body are suspended for the purpose of recuperation. Activity 
must be followed by rest; this is one of the physiological 
rhythms by which life is preserved. Usually the hours of rest 
are taken at night in bed, the average need being for eight 
hours of sleep. During the day there can be moments of rest. 
Relax the body and mind several times during the day's work, 
and you will be repaid by increased strength. There should 
be rest before meals if there has been fatigue; twenty minutes 
should be given before and after dinner. The processes of 
digestion cannot work if there is fatigue. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 189 

Sleeping-Rooms and Beds. 

Preparations for the night rest should be well planned. The 
sleeping-room should have thorough ventilation through the 
day and openings for free passage of air during the night. 
Everybody should sleep alone, from the new-born iniant to one 
in old age. This is a most important item generally overlooked 
in household arrangement. To be sure, a large house will be 
needed if each member has his own sleeping-room, but more 
people can afford it than arrange for it. When more than one 
person must be assigned to a room each should have his own 
bed, even though the persons be father, mother and infant. 

It would be difficult to find two persons exactly equal in 
bodily powers. When sleeping together, between the same 
pair of sheets, the stronger will absorb vitality from the 
weaker. One person will arise refreshed for the day's work, 
the other more or less enervated. 

When two persons occupying the same bed are husband and 
wife, in addition to the depletion of one's vitality, there is 
the temptation to amorous excess, which is avoided by sepa- 
rate beds. Of this Dr. Ruddock says: "Married persons 
should adopt more generally the rule of sleeping in separate 
rooms, or at least in separate beds, as is almost the universal 
custom in Germany and Holland. The rule being adopted, 
several very important advantages would result in regard to 
health and comfort. 

"Opportunity makes importunity. * * * 

"And it is w^ell known that if two persons, one sickly and 
the other healthy, occupy the same bed, one will become dis- 
eased without the other being benefited." 

The sleep of all persons should be calm, without pain, 
uneasiness, fantastic dreams or visions. It should be neither 
interrupted nor too long undisturbed. The only movement 



140 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

that does not mean irregularity is occasional turning from 
side to side. The more noiseless the breathing, the more 
healthy. The skin should be warm and moist to the touch, ■ 
but excess means variation from health. 

The better position to assume on retiring to rest is to lie 
upon the right side. If there is food in the stomach it passes 
out the more readily. The pillow should be just enough to 
allow the head to have horizontal position when lying on the 
side. 

The mattress may be of straw, husks, hair or wool ; feathers 
are no longer used. 

The covering should combine warmth with lightness. If 
comfortables are used they should be of light weight and 
easily laundered. Blankets should have a thorough outdoor 
airing at least once or twice a week, particularly if used with- 
out sheets, as is sometimes the case. Absolute cleanliness in 
regard to beds and bedding is the most essential requirement. 

Beds must be thoroughly aired each morning after use. 
To make up a bed soon after it is vacated is to hold in its 
folds the poisonous emanations from the body. Frequent 
repetitions of this sin will breed disease. 

The Importance of Rest. 

In disease, rest is half the cure ; indeed, some forms of dis- 
ease are amenable to the rest cure alone. Almost any form 
of indigestion, a disease of the digestive tract, will yield if 
that system is allowed proper rest. One may, with advantage, 
fast from one meal up to three, four or seven days. This time 
allows the system to rid itself of whatever is clogging it, at 
the same time giving an overworked digestion rest. 

A current periodical says: "People used to think when a 
man was sick he needed something unwholesome to eat. The 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, , 141 

thrifty housewife stored away quantities of preserves, brandied 
cherries and jellies so as to have them in readiness if some 
member of the household should be ill. An old friend of mine 
came home late one night and found that his wife had retired. 
Discovering no pie in the pantry, he went to the door of his 
wife's room and called out: ^Mary, where is the pie?' Mary 
replied : *I am very sorry, John, but there is no pie in the 
house/ Returning to the pantry he made a search for cake. 
Finding no cake, he again sought the chamber door and 
asked: 'Mary, where is the cake?' Mary very reluctantly 
confessed that the supply of cake was also exhausted. The old 
gentleman, in stern voice, then asked: *Why, Mary, what 
would you do if some one should be sick in the night?* " 

Although the pessimist may say the world is growing worse, 
it will be hard to find many communities now where the crime 
of gluttony is not recognized or more or less worked against. 
Illness is not nearly so generally treated with pie and cake as 
some generations ago, thanks to the onward march of progress. 

SPEQAL EXERCISES* 

Special exercises are used for the development of weakly 
parts. In this way even hereditary tendencies can be over- 
come. Helen Gardner says : "The conditions under which we 
develop or restrict our inherited tendencies will determine in 
large part whether heredity shall be our slave-driver or our 
companion in the race for life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." 

Any one with sufficient intelligence for parentage will know 
what mental or physical weakness of one or both parents is 
apt to manifest itself in the child, and assist the unfolding intel- 
ligence to overcome it. For mstance, there is a family tendency 
to pulmonary disorders. The child is given every benefit of 



143 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

sunshine, open air and exercise for deep breathing, while the 
body is fortified with nourishing food. A tendency tO' ner- 
vousness is overcome by attention to physical well-being. Ac- 
cording to Prof. Caldwell, inherited tendencies may be divided 
into three classes: 

"( i) Good, that are strong and well, if left free to take care 
of themselves. Good that are weak and need encouragement 
and choicest culture. 

"(2) Excessive faculties that need training to right uses and 
applying to good causes, lest they be turned into evil channels, 
and become curses instead of blessings. 

"(3) Bad tendencies that need to be curbed and turned in 
opposite directions, making them blessings." 

One who has missed the proper cultivation in childhood 
can, by effort of the reason and will, aid himself in encouraging 
faults of mind or body. For instance, where there is natural 
taste for some of the habits that destroy — the alcohol habit or 
the tobacco habit — the person must keep at the most extreme 
distance from temptation. Resolutely turn from them and 
fill the mind with thoughts of what will ennoble and uplift. 
We become like that upon which the mind is fixed. 

A teacher of the principles elaborated by Francois Del Sarte 
says: "Aside from a proper diet there is nothing that will 
bring self-control so readily as breathing exercises." Follow- 
ing are the two most highly recommended: 

Del Sarte Breathing: Exercises* 

(i) Standing; draw abdomen well out of sight, and ex- 
pand the chest; throw head back and face up, simultaneously 
raise bent arms to level of shoulders and place finger-tips upon 
the chest at a point between the breasts on the sternum; look 
up and inhale while sweeping the arms and hands up, back, and 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 143 

down to sides; exhale while sweeping hands to chest again 
by the same heart-shaped circle. Repeat six times, drawing the 
air in from above. 

(2) Standing; expand chest and draw abdomen out of 
sight; throw head back and face up, the arms at the sides; now 
up, around the same heart-shaped track previously used, but 
in this you inhale as if sweeping the air from all sides and 
above into the lungs; exhale as you sweep the arms up, out, 
and down. 

Health being absolutely dependent upon the breathing pow- 
ers, there is no phase of life in which chest cultivation may be 
neglected. Well-developed shoulders* and chest always indi- 
te the finer, stronger individual powers. 
A breathing exercise for use first thing in the morning is 
the following : 

Before dressing stand erect, heels together, hands on hips, 
chest up ; inhale slowly through the nostrils until the lungs are 
full, then expel all the air, forcing it out as much as possible. 
Then take five ordinary breaths, and repeat the forced respira- 
tion. Repeat five times each morning. There will be a dizzi- 
ness at first, because the system has not been used to so much 
oxygen, and it has an intoxicating effect; but this passes 
away with practice. This forced respiration causes distension 
of the air cells, which becojne stronger by the exercise. 

When walking in the open air it is beneficial to try this 
lung gymnastic: Inhale slowly, then walk ^Yt or ten steps 
and exhale slowly. Any person who is a member of a family 
with tendency to diseases of the air passage will be able to 
hold at bay by lung development the scourge of asthma, bron- 
chitis and consumption. 



144 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 

BEAUTY CULTURE. 

Special cultivation toward personal beauty may be in- 
cluded in the care of the complexion, hair, teeth, hands, feet, 
etc. 

Real beauty, like every other good thing, is worthless unless 
it is useful. But a woman with a little thought can keep her- 
self in a good state of preservation and perform her useful 
part, too. 

If nature has bestowed upon you good, regular features, 
be thankful and take care of yourself; if not, remember the 
features are but a slight percentage of personal attractiveness. 
A good carriage, a fresh complexion and a kindly spirit are of 
first importance. 

A good complexion is obtainable through health ; pure food, 
pure water, pure air must be appreciated and used for all their 
value'. To keep the skin in good condition the body must be 
kept cleansed of impurities from its millions of perspiratory 
pores. The internal bath used twice or three times a week 
will be of great aid in keeping the system rid of impurity. 

Mrs. Humphrey says: "Too many clothes serve to clog 
up the skin and make the myriad of nerves that keep it alive 
grow sensitive, so that a little dab of fresh air on an unpro- 
tected spot will make you shiver all over. Stimulating these 
little nerves that lie upon the surface of the body tends to 
stimulate the healthy action of the skin, the circulation of the 
blood, and, finally, the operations of all the organs. So it is 
desirable to disrobe completely in a room filled with fresh 
air, and to take a good rub-down. This is particularly grati- 
fying after a long day of visiting, or shopping, or other work. 
• If you feel nervous or irritable, try this simple method of get- 
ting the kinks out of yourself; it will make you doubt if you 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 145 

really were nervous or in bad humor after all, so pleasing will 
be the change." 

A Remedy for Sleeplessness^ 

For sleeplessness nothing is a better aid to overcome it than 
the air-bath. One should completely disrobe, and, while walk- 
ing about, rub or roll the flesh. 

For the morning sponge-bath a sedative water composed of 
a cup of sea-salt, a half-ounce of camphor, a half-ounce of 
ammonia, is recommended; these are put into a quart bottle, 
filling the bottle with hot water; it is ready for use after 
twenty-four hours. Put a teaspoonful of the mixture in the 
basin for use at one time. You will be surprised at the amount 
of dirt it will remove, and it brings a most beneficent reaction. 
The ammonia cleanses the pores, the camphor and sea-salt im- 
part a tonic effect ; the result will be a firm, smooth skin. 

In bathing the face, be careful not to be rough in application 
of soap and towel. From exposure to the air and dust the 
face and hands need extra care. Use warm, soft water ; lather 
the face and hands with a good soap, and then massage every 
portion of the face and neck until the flesh tingles ; after which 
rinse, and dry by patting the skin with a soft towel. Apply a 
cold cream or skin-food. The following formula is recom- 
mended by Madame Qui Vive: 

Madame Qui Vive^s Skin Food. 

Spermaceti one-half ounce 

White wax one-half ounce 

Sweet almond oil two ounces 

Lanoline one ounce 

Cocoanut oil one ounce 

Tincture benzoin three drops 

Orange flower water one ounce 



U6 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL 



The object of a skin food is to prevent wrinkles. These 
little lines on the face mar its smoothness and beauty, and 
Mme. Qui Vive adds, "are unnecessary evils — anyway until 
one gets to be a hundred or so." 

They appear because the sub-cutaneous fat has been ab- 
sorbed, and the skin falls into folds. When the skin food is 
applied the fattening qualities are absorbed and nourish and 
build up the underlying tissues. 

Mme. Pote says not even worry will make a woman grow 
wrinkled and old so rapidly as sleeping with the head upon 
high pillows. The tendency of the muscles through the day is 
to droop; this should be counteracted by sleeping with the 
head low. The facial massage should consist mainly of up- 
ward pressure. 

Facial Eruptions^ 

Facial eruptions are largely due to internal impurity, but 
are sometimes caused by disease or by an irritating soap, or 
too frequent use of powder. Where the face is washed and 
groomed more than the rest of the body the impurities are 
called to where escape is most freely offered. When it is made 
unsightly by blotches attention must be given to the diet, to 
the internal bath, and other hygienic measures. All pastries 
and confections must be given up unless you love yourself 
more than your friends, who wish to see you beautiful. Feast 
on fruits instead of candies; eat apples, orangfes, peaches, 
pears, etc. Pimples or blotches must never be irritated; keep 
the skin clean, the skin food applied, and let the cure come from 
internal cleansing and purifying through fresh air, pure food, 
and the copious internal bath. 

Blackheads require much the same treatment. They are 
due to inactivity of the sebaceous glands and logically disap- 
pear when activity is created. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 147 

Sunburn, Freckles, Etc. 

Tan, sunburn and freckles come from external causes — the 
action of the wind and sun. 

Do not bathe the face with soap and water before going out 
without fortifying it with some preparation such as the fol- 
lowing : 
Take of — 

Distilled witch hazel three ounces 

Prepared cucumber juice three ounces 

Rosewater one and one-half ounces 

Essence white rose one and one-half ounces 

Tincture of benzoin one-half ounce 

After using a little of the above a powder may be dusted 
lightly over the face. 

The discolorations are from activity of the pigment cells 
under the skin and disappear when the face and hands are 
for a time protected from wind and weather. 

Sunburn should receive treatment with a cold cream rubbed 
well into the skin. It is a burn and should be treated as such. 

Care of the Hands* 

The care of the hands is not so serious an item, except to 
housewives who are also the maids-of-all-work. There is 
so much of washing and polishing and dabbling in water 
they must really use care to prevent the hands being unlovely. 
The secret of keeping the hands nice is to keep them free from 
sudden changes of temperature. Dry them thoroughly after 
having them in water and rub them with corn-meal or corn- 
starch. 



148 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

For chapped hands or lips take of the following : 

Oil of almonds four ounces 

White beeswax two drachms 

Spermaceti two drachms 

Rosewater four ounces 

Orange water one ounce 

Melt the first three ingredients in a saucepan, and while 
sooling beat in the last two. 

After bathing the hands, the skin should be pushed back 
from the nails to prevent hang nails. Nails should be trimmed 
the same shape as the finger. Use no sharp instrument about 
the nails except the scissors for trimming. Rub callous spots 
with pumice stone. 

Redness of the h^nds is due to restriction of the circulation. 
Either the sleeves, corset or waist is too tight. Lemon juice 
will whiten the hands; apply cold cream immediately after 
using it. 

Protect the hands from cold ; it is destructive to their beauty. 

Care of the Hain 

Nice, clean, glossy hair is an attractive adjunct to beauty. 
Naturally oily hair should be washed twice a month and thor- 
oughly rinsed ; hair not so oily, about once in a month. Equally 
as often the hair should be trimmed. When the nourishment 
within each hair does not extend the full length it splits. The 
trimming of the ends is to remove these dead portions, which 
will promote growth. When the hair begins falling, the scalp 
may be invigorated by using massage. It quickens circulation 
and brings health and strength to the roots. The following 
recipe is good for dandruff and falling hair ; 



I 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 149 

Resorcin forty-eight grains 

Glycerine one- fourth ounce 

Alcohol . . . enough to finish filling a two-ounce bottle 
Apply to the scalp each night, rubbing it well in. 

When bodily health is not good it is to be seen in the hair 
as well as the complexion and eyes. Any of the symptoms 
should suggest attention to health. 

Brushing the hair at night removes accumulations of dust. 
Dandruff is a natural formation and will accumulate if clean- 
liness is not observed sufficiently. 

A coarse comb is used to disentangle the hair, the brush to 
remove flakiness and dust; fine-tooth combs are outgrown; 
they belong to the past exclusively. 

Superfluous hair is removable surely by electrolysis; the 
root of the hair is destroyed and future growth made impos- 
sible. Another method sometimes effectual is the use of 
peroxide of hydrogen alternately with diluted ammonia; the 
peroxide bleaches and the ammonia deadens the growth. This 
takes time and patience. If the skin becomes irritated, use 
cream. 

Every womaa should adopt a style of dressing the hair be- 
coming to herself and cling fondly to it. Each passing whim 
of fashion cannot improve the appearance of everybody. 

The Care of the Teethe 

The care of the teeth cannot begin too early; through- 
out life they are accessory adjuncts to health as well as 
beauty. When the first infant teeth have come in they should 
be washed every morning with cool, clean water and a soft 
cloth. Should a dark-colored formation appear next the gum 
it may be removed by rubbing prepared chalk over the discol- 



150 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. r 

oration. If it cannot be reached by the soft cloth use a tootH- 
pick bitten into pulp at one end as a kind of brush. If the 
milk-teeth are not cared for the perrnanent teeth are apt to 
come in irregularly and be a lasting deformity. By the time a 
child is three years old he can be taught to use a brush himself, 
moving it up and down rather than from side to side, to re- 
move particles from between the teeth. 

Teeth are apt to become diseased from insufficient or im- 
proper nourishment as well as a lack of cleanliness. But this 
tells in all parts of the body. 

Cleansing of the teeth should be after each meal, and upon 
retiring all particles should be removed by drawing between 
the teeth a piece of waxed dental floss ; or if too close together, 
the fine Japanese toothpick, or a quill, may be used. Use a 
mild tooth powder whose ingredients you know, rinsing the 
mouth as well as the brush, thereafter. Tepid water should 
be used, as excessive cold or heat destroys the enamel. 

The saliva undergoes a putrefactive change, which, when 
allowed to dry in the mouth, forms tartar, and is very injurious 
to teeth and gums. Upon making the morning toilet the 
mouth may be rinsed with water in which there is a drop of 
listerine or carbolic acid; it prevents tenderness of the gums. 
Occasionally a little juice from a lemon may be squeezed over 
the brush and rubbed over the teeth, to remove the yellowish 
deposit; it m.ust be used quickly and the mouth rinsed, as it 
may damage the enamel. It must be borne in mind that the 
enamel, nature's protection for the teeth, when once destroyed 
is never formed anew. Hard substances that break or scratch 
it should never come in contact with the teeth. Never use 
metal toothpicks, bite threads, or crack nuts with the teeth. 

Visit a dentist twice a year to have the teeth examined. 
^Wherever there is a decayed spot it must be filled, and all 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 151 

calcareous accumulations removed. Use the tooth-brush often, 
and the breath will be kept pure and sweet. 

The Care of the Eyes» 

Beauty of the eyes is dependent upon a reasonable degree 
of care, but chiefly upon the cultivation of an amiable, intelli- 
gent spirit, for the eyes are ^'the windows of the soul." 

To face the light when reading or writing, to sew or em- 
broider in a flickering artificial light, to read lying abed, are a 
few of the things to be avoided if sight is to be preserved. 
Whenever the eyeballs ache, work of whatever nature should 
be suspended and the eyelids closed for a few moments' rest. 
Another thing, do not cry. There have been many dramatic 
things written about women who are sad-eyed, but the fashion 
has passed. Weeping inflames and injures the eyes, and, at 
present, is apt to mean ^ou are lacking in courage to properly 
face your environment. 

When the eyes sting and burn, bathe in tepid water and 
rest them for a time. Weak tea is a good tonic. The eyes will 
partake of any impairment of the health; hence, for sake of 
strong sight, do not pervert the rules of health. Dr. Foote 
says that John Quincy Adam.s preserved the perfectness of his 
sight until he died, at the age of eighty-one, by pursuing, from 
an early age, the habit of frequently bathing the eyes and mak- 
ing manipulations toward the bridge of the nose. 

Where there are visual disturbances they may be corrected by 
properly fitted glasses. 

The Care of the Feet* 

The care of the feet lies mainly in keeping them prop- 
erly shod, cleansed, and the nails trimmed. The perspiratory 
pores are largest on the soles of the feet and palms of the 



152 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

hands; hence, more impurity is deposited there. When the 
semi-weekly or weekly warm bath is taken the feet must be 
well rubbed with a cloth or bath-brusTi that the collection of 
scarf-skin may be easily removed. The nails should be 
trimmed closely. 

Shoes must be well-fitting, but roomy enough to allow mus- 
cular freedom. A large, ill-fitting shoe is as apt to create corns, 
bunions, etc., as one too tight. The low heel is the only one 
to be considered; high heels throw the body out of its proper 
poise. If there are corns, a little sulphuric acid upon the end 
of a toothpick touched upon them will soon cause them to dis- 
appear. 

Ingrowing nails are torture and are caused by pressure usu- 
ally upon the great toe. Bathe the afflicted member frequently 
to reduce inflammation, and with a pen-knife or cuticle knife 
cut a V in the center of the nail. As the nail will tend to 
grow together at the niche cut out, the mgrowing portion will 
be lifted from the flesh in which it is imbedded. Be good to 
your feet and they will be good to you, by never paining. 

Health, Beauty and Gr acc« 

Ease and grace for body as well as mind are attained 
through the training, polishing and disciplining of all the fac- 
ulties. Prentice Mulford says: 'The habitually self-possessed 
woman will be graceful in every movement for the reason that 
her spirit has complete possession and command of its tool, 
the body." 

Francois Del Sarte taught that physical development, poise 
and gesture are but the external expressions of an internal con- 
dition, and that on teaching the expression the feeling would 
follow. Which is true when the real principles are understood. 
But much culture is superficial; is veneering to a coarse in- 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 153 

terior life, and is not what is desirable for any stage of growth. 

In middle life and even in old age suppleness of the body 
may be preserved by attention to certain needs of the body. 
One writer says : "Exercise all your life. When you stop 
exercising and become indolent, you begin to die. Nature has 
willed it so.'* To preserve equilibrium it is necessary to take 
exercise enough every day to cause free perspiration and fa- 
tigue. If the daily employment is of a physical nature there 
should yet be enough other muscular exertion to secure an all- 
around development of the body. 

For adults physical activity must not be violent nor too 
prolonged, although the muscles may be firmer than in youth. 
If one guards against the "sin of over-eating," daily exercise 
prevents undue accumulations of fat, which encourages degen- 
eration of the tissues. The editor of Physical Culture says: 
"Avoid making the idiotic mistake that fat means health. If 
you are fat begin to reduce at once. You are carrying a bur- 
den that can always be discarded by vigorous, intelligent ef- 
forts, and the brightness and joys of life will vastly increase 
when this plain duty has been performed." 

To prevent the stiffness and inflexibility of* old age the fol- 
lowing, by J. R. Blake, should be seriously considered : 

"Hardening of the bones determines why some people are 
small and others large. Apart from disease wHich destroys 
life, the wear and tear of the body in old age is absolutely 
unnecessary. We have seen that ossification is necessary to 
youth, in order that the bones may be formed and made 
strong. The action of the blood which deposits bony matter 
is kept up through life. Why do we not reverse the process? 
Old age, the wear and tear of life, the breaking down of the 
functions of the body, are all caused by this osseous process, 
which itself is caused by calcareous deposits. What do these 



154 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 

deposits cause? The hardening of the skin; thereupon it 
wrinkles and gets old ; the hair is killed and the blood does not 
circulate freely. The brain turns to bony tissue in its intricate 
parts; it loses flexibility, becomes hard, so that deep thinking 
is impossible. The heart gets clogged ; its circulative action is 
impeded, and the body suffers by reason of poor blood. The 
arteries, muscles, sinews and tendons become stiffened by the 
osseous tendency, and old age is attended by multitudinous ills. 
All of the above symptoms of old age and disease can be pre- 
vented by the use of distilled zuater. At the age of twenty-one 
and ever after one should habitually dissolve the osseous de- 
posits of the body. The daily use of distilled water is, after 
middle life, one of the most important means of preventing 
these deposits and the consequent derangement of health." 

Health is beauty and happiness. It is attainable by con- 
formity to the laws of being. We are forever under the sov- 
ereignty of natural law, and only by complying with its 
conditions are we enabled to realize what is best in our earthly 
apprenticeship. It is not a tyrant, but a powerful co-operator, 
when properly understood. 



PART II 




CHAPTER V. 

The Unfolding of Womanhood. 

N LONGFELLOW'S poem entitled Maidenhood 
there is a pretty piece of imagery in the first of the 
following lines : 

''Standing with reluctant feet, 
Where the brook and river meet, 
Womanhood and childhood fleet ! 

5ft 3jC 3j» 3Jt 

O, thou child of many prayers, 

Life hath quicksands. Life hath snares. 

Care and age come unawares." 

The sure and certain transition from a care-free stage of 
life to one of serious import fills a matured person with keen 
apprehension, if he or she thinks at all. Childhood, maiden- 
hood, wifehood, motherhood, and through all of these the 
factor of being a representative of humankind, mean enough 
for the vital consideration of every one. Very few children 
can be left to "jus' grow" as Topsy did. Their pathway must 
be illuminated by love and wisdom, that they may conform to, 
and not transgress against, the laws of being. 

The Curse of Pr udishness. 

Standing in the pathway of those who seek truth for them- 
selves and the world is what is known as the Curse of Prudish- 
ness. Coming in the guise of virtue, like a wolf in sheep's 

l5o 



156 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

clothing, it is apt to be mistaken on first sight. One content 
with superficiaHties will never see below the surface, and hence 
never know he is lowering himself by the low ideas regarding 
bodily impurity. In an essay on "Prudery" Lady Cook says : 
*'We have seen young matrons blush with shame when strang- 
ers have gazed upon their naked babes. The beautiful sight of 
these little, rosy, fragile incarnations of innocence, pure and 
spotless as from the Maker's hands, could crimson their own 
mother with blushes! What folly is this! What irreverence 
to Him who made us and saw all His work that 'it was very 
good.' It was not thus that Mary presented the infant Jesus 
to those who came to do Him honor ; and doubtless for many 
a year He ran and played with other children, as they do even 
now in the East, without a vestige of covering. The prurient 
mock-modesty which is horrified by the sight of a naked child 
or a nude statue or picture is a reproach to our weak-minded- 
ness and to our defective moral training. If we were not so 
'nice' as we are, our ideas would not be so nasty. We want 
more common sense, more philosophy on sexual matters before 
the mind of our children can be trained to purity, and vice be 
lessened thereby. For it is not what we see, but how we 
see. If impurity exists in the soul it will be inflamed by the 
most innocent cause; but if pure it will regard all things of 
evil with indifference, and all of good with approbation. It 
follows, then, that prudery is a particular form of impurity." 

Pradcry and Igfnorancc. 

Prudery is the result of a misconception of what is pure. The 
outgrowth of training under it proves it to be a foolish fallacy. 
But often it is ingrained as a matter of conscience, and "none 
is so hopelessly wrong as he who is conscientiously wrong." 
Mothers try to excuse themselves when sons or daughters go 



THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 157 

wrong by saying, "It has not been my fault. I trained them 
the best that I knew." This is scant comfort. It is the com- 
mon custom of humanity to seek, even to the ends of earth, for 
a cause outside of themselves for any failure. It is with the 
hope of aiding young parents to see the way clearer that this 
volume is issued. And there are many others working along 
this line, one of whom remarks : "Young parents, you have not 
forgotten the five or ten years of disquiet, misery or mortifica- 
tion that was your lot, caused chiefly by the remarks of equally 
ignorant comrades, or suggested by the many sights and inci- 
dents which crowded your lives — mysteries which hypnotized 
you until you were powerless to concentrate your thoughts 
upon your studies. The only relief to be found was in con- 
structing air-castles and hatching ideas, living in and with them 
until marriage brought sad awakening that was almost dis- 
heartening. 

"How we would like our children to avoid all this, not hav- 
ing their lesson hours obtruded upon by goblins or fairies. It is 
within your power, young father, young mother — will you but 
make the endeavor. Give nature an open chance. Remove 
those barriers to mind and body. Let them know the truth. 
They will surely find out these things. It is better they be 
taught the truth by the parents whom they trust and confide in 
than that they pick it up elsewhere, clothed in mystery and 
sensationalism." 

Parents as Teachers of the Truth* 

. Those parents who begin at the beginning with their infants 
will have no difficulty in imparting to them the meaning of the 
unfolding powers of creative life. It is just the next step in 
growth which should continue in the confidences between them. 
At every turn from the first dawn of the powers of observation 



158 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

a child is met with the marvelous changes called birth and 
death. Naturally he wants to know. Sometimes his parents 
are without reverence for creative life, so they are not in posi- 
tion to teach truth. So, as Mrs. Stetson says, we have "this 
amazing paradox of mothers ashamed of motherhood, unable 
to explain it, and — measure this well — lying to their children 
about the primal truths of life — mothers lying to their own 
children about motherhood T' 

The young girl entering the threshold of womanhood might 
often, in the words of Schiller, say: 

"I wander through the wood alone, 
No trodden path before me lies." 

The goodly knowledge of life's laws is the only safe guide. 
Unfolding within her being is the voice of creative life, whose 
function she must know to save herself from mistakes that 
bring pain and often humiliation in their train. Parents 
shield their children from harm in many ways, but the way 
of most value is the one of teaching the child to care for him- 
self; to develop within himself the powers for good, so that 
the darkness of evil has no place in his mind. Then what- 
ever he may hear of impurity will not attract him as some- 
thing mysterious and sensational. 

Up to the age of puberty the voice of creative life is com- 
paratively dormant; that is, the child's body has not suffi- 
ciently developed for its manifestations. When it is first 
heard, the individual, boy or girl, is startled, and seeks for 
explanation of its meaning. How often do they dare to go to 
parents? Alas the day! confidences have ceased, if ever they 
were begun, caused by the ruthlessness which degrades the 
sex nature. There are few other subjects beyond the pale of 
discussion; but the young early crave information regarding 



THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD, ^59 

these every-day displays of creative life, and are met with 
evasiveness or repression — so the gateway to confidential rela- 
tions becomes more and more closed. 

Sex a Quality of SouL 

To gain a clear knowledge of this underlying power of all 
activity, it must be fixed in mind that sex is a quality of soul ; 
is a principle, not substance ; is of the entire being, not merely 
of the reproductive system, though those are organs for its 
especial expression on the plane of generation. The male and 
female are the two equal principles through the co-operation of 
which advancement is made; both are equally necessary in 
the Great Plan. 

When the influx of life drawn by the creative principle of 
sex begins, there is such a superabundance of life the young 
person does not know how to make use of the excess. He or 
she is most apt to hear from some source that the voice of 
passion is his for personal gratification alone, rather than the 
prompting to think and to do. Instead, it is Nature's spur to 
activity, and must be listened to in that sense for most of the 
days of life. There may and should come a time when ma- 
turity is reached that the power of sex will be used to generate 
on the physical plane; but these are rare times. No father 
and mother will think they can fully nourish and care for 
more than three or four children. 

Says a writer: *There are two manifestations of this life; 
the building up or ,conserving of the body for mental and 
physical achievements, and, secondly, for the propagation of 
Man. In either direction life and energy are consumed. Na- 
ture points out the order of the development of these two liiies 
of activity. Clearly, the development and the upbuilding and 
maturing of the body and the corresponding mental growth 



160 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

within the body are the first in the point of time. Only after 
the body is fully developed and a life worthy of transmission 
is evolved, only after this is there a valid reason for perpetua- 
tion. The reverse of this order is bound to be more or less 
disastrous/* 

The gratification of any appetite of the body, whether 
natural or acquired, is not so much for the delight it brings 
as to cause a cessation of the craving. The acquired tobacco 
or alcohol habits are gratified that the craving shall tem- 
porarily cease. The perverted voice of passion is silenced by 
the same means. And the pervert sells himself for the pleasure 
he thus buys. 

The Training: of Childhooc^ 

On the subject of keeping the child-mind pure, an author 
says : "Feeding such food as gravies, pies, tea and coffee to 
a five or ten-year-old angel from heaven would produce in 
it a tendency to self-abuse, avoiding all mention of a child 
of the earth, born with an inherited tendency." 

The training of childhood has much to do with developing 
precocity in the sex nature. Regard must be given with ref- 
erence to this, because the best development of the child de- 
mands it. Plain but nourishing food, abundant exercise and 
fresh air, with wise parental guidance, insure a normal' un- 
folding of the powers of being. A girl, having the same hu- 
man needs as a boy, must be given an equal opportunity. Re- 
strictions on account of sex are as unwise as they are harmful. 
Mrs. Stetson says that *'the most normal girl is the 'tom-boy' — 
whose numbers increase among us in these wiser days, — a 
healthy young creature, who is human through and through, 
not feminine till it is time to be. The most normal boy has 
calmness and gentleness, as well as vigor and courage. He is 
a human creature, as well as a male creature, and not aggress- 



THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 161 

ively masculine till it is time to be. Childhood is not the 
period for marked manifestation of sex. That we encourage 
and admire shows our over-sexed condition." 

A very foolish practice is that of suggesting lovers and 
sweethearts to infants, and teasing those who have just entered 
the adolescent period. Both practices pervert the normal 
child, stimulating sexual precocity in the young, and stultify- 
ing or befuddling the unfolding faculties of the older. 

Parents Their Children's Comrades* 

The true training will align the young mind with the forces 
of health, and bestow thereon the assurance of truth. Infor- 
mation as to the origin of life or the laws of life need not be 
beyond the demand or the capacity to understand. The par- 
ent must ever be the child's comrade and friend from the 
period of mud-pies and make-believe environment, on through 
life. If a question is propounded at a time when the parent is 
otherwise engaged, make an appointment for its considera- 
tion later on. From early infancy great care must be exer- 
cised that physical sensations do not become attractive. It is 
but the instrument of the personality that occupies it, and 
which must ever be under the domination of the ego. 

Never begin in babyhood to shame one part of the body. 
Each function and each organ has its proper uses, all equally 
important. This knowledge should be communicated to 
the child. Also that there is a time, a place and a condition 
for all things, and what is out of harmony at one time will 
not be so in its own proper place. The beauty of modesty has 
a proper foundation, and crying shame against any portion or 
function of the body is not one of its planks. The toilet, the 
bath, the evacuations, belong to privacy after one has reached 
maturity, or even puberty. But it does not follow that these 



163 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

most necessary attentions are disgraceful. They are really 
serious parts of preparations for activity. 

In the second stanza quoted at the beginning of this chap- 
ter the line, 

''Life hath quicksands, Life hath snares," 

is pregnant with meaning to mother-hearts. So many of the 
quicksands and snares have their foundation in the ignorance 
of the meaning of womanhood. 

'T am more and more convinced that right knowledge is 
not only a safeguard of purity, but is really the creator of 
true modesty. To give a young person a reverent knowledge 
of self is to insure that delicacy of thought which preserves 
the bloom of modesty." — Almost a Woman. 

The pathway of unfolding womanhood is beset with snares 
and pitfalls for unwary feet. Vaguely conscious of the law 
that masculine and feminine elements are complementary and 
necessary to each other, young girls are often easily led away 
by the unscrupulous of the other sex. Sometimes they are 
frightened into keeping virtue's pathway by being shown the 
goblins about them, but this means, like the one of using hell 
to scare people into heaven, is very questionable. It can never 
give a young woman the self-poise and assurance that enlight- 
enment can. Caresses and love-words are acceptable to most 
woman-natures, but in the sense which leads to mating they 
are unsuitable for one in the early teens. 

It should be pointed out to the daughter that comradery 
and friendliness with boy friends is all right, but that thoughts 
or talks of marriage are out of place for many years. 

Evil of Sensational Literature* 

The thrilling and unreal type of love-story should be kept 
out of sight. And the only way to prevent an eager unfolding 



THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 163 

mind from laying hold of whatever comes in reach is to fore- 
stall the sensational literature with good reading. That class 
of story or biography which will aid in forming a wholesome 
ideal should be placed at hand and discussed so that the 
anxious young one will wish for self-investigation. 

A taste for what is good in literature is as easily cultivated 
as a pernicious appetite, and is one of the most powerful aids 
in developing good thoughts and a good vocabulary. 

Another of the chiefest principles to teach by example and 
precept is the duty of cheerfulness. Ella Wheeler's poem, 
"Laugh and the world laughs with you," rests upon the basic 
principle that cheerfulness is one of the beneficent laws of be- 
ing. Health to one's self and joy to one's friends come from 
cheerfulness, which goes hand-in-hand with kindness. 

Of one of the minor characters in "Adam Bede" George 
Eliot said : "His was one of those large-hearted, sweet-blooded 
natures that never know a narrow or a grudging thought; 
of a sufficiently subtle moral fiber to have an unwearying 
tenderness for obscure and monotone suffering." Those na- 
tures which carry an atmosphere of kindly cheerfulness are 
the graces of the world, the multiplication of which is sorely 
needed. 

In instilling these beauties into the warp and woof of char- 
acter, one must begin away back in infancy and teach the rec- 
ognition of things joyous, and the non-recognition of the un- 
pleasant things. "The reverse is usually the rule. The com- 
mon cry is, "How can I not recognize and bemoan that which 
goes wrong ?" By simply not doing so, my sister woman. We 
become like that upon which our hearts are most fixed. And 
it is ungenerous to a child to allow the unpleasant features of 
the pathway of life to stand out most prominently. Emer- 
son, the wise prophet, said: "There is no beautifier of com- 



164 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

plexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and 
not pain around us." If we learn to search for the joyous in 
life for ourselves it will, in greater or less degree, be com- 
municated to those with whom we come in contact. What- 
ever mood we set forth will unerringly return; if joy is scat- 
tered, joy comes back; if ill-natured pessimism goes from us, it 
rebounds in despondency. Earth's lovable children are those 
who possess cheerfulness either through heredity or cultiva- 
tion. 

"Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
When the young heart overflows." 

Nothing is misery unless our weakness makes it so. 
Character Formed by Training:. 

Equilibrium of character is generated by training the fem- 
inine faculties toward the work that shall be hers. 

As in the past, so largely in the present, a boy is taught to 
consider what he shall do — the girl whom she shall marry. And 
marriage is just as likely the lot of the boy as of the girl. This 
is training the girl to make capital of her sex, and is one of the 
bars to social evolution. Marriage should not be the business 
of a girl's life — no more than that of her brother's. This rela- 
tion has its own beautiful place, but it is a condition and not 
a business. 

A young woman who makes of herself the best possible 
being, physically, morally, mentally, socially, is fitting herself 
for a possible wifehood and motherhood. This is true of her 
brother. Both will study specifically what parenthood means 
before the condition is theirs to live. Motherhood and wife- 
hood have their embryonic germs in every normal girl. And 
the best parents develop from the young of both sexes who love 
the real beauties of life, which include babies. 



THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 166 

Specialized taste for some branch of industry will oegin 
manifesting itself when the influx of the larger life is distinctly 
felt. Aspirations begin flitting through the brain. Chance 
dream follows chance dream, until a final preference is made 
after due consideration of the matter. Then all the thoughts 
and acts are shaped with reference thereto, and, as Fra Elbertus 
says, "without violence or direction the goal is reached." The 
ideal begins to be lived. All effort which has the inspiration 
of hope and love uplifts the character. Just in the proportion 
that work is made inter.esting and pleasant will there be 
progress. 

The Eqaality of the Sexes* 

An age-long theory or superstition held women to be the 
inferiors of men ; but in proof that there is growth and progress 
many women are breaking away from the restraints that have 
held them, and are demonstrating their ability to stand alone 
as far as intellectual development and the power of self-sus- 
tainment goes. 

It is the law, however, that men and women cannot be 
wholly independent of each other. "Male and female created 
He them." From the good which is the outgrowth of their 
true relations is generated soil for the growth of each along 
their independent lines of work. A reverent consideration of 
this law is one of earth's sore needs. Young people, young 
girls, should be so imbued with high feeling for this depart- 
ment of being that they would not speak carelessly of it, nor 
drag it through the mire of thoughtless jest. These be mat- 
ters for the sanctuary of the holy of holies. 

Most of the relationships between the social throng of 
men and women are as honest friends and comrades. The 
past generations were wont to regard every man as the possi- 
ble enemy of every woman's virtue, and that the weaker sex 



166 THE UNFOLDING OF WOMANHOOD. 

must be constantly on the defensive. In the old-world coun- 
tries this is yet largely true. But in the glad time when all 
the youth are enlightened as to the teal functions of manhood 
and womanhood, adaptability and attraction will be the only 
basis for union, and this will be true marriage. The human 
relation can be then more beautifully upheld without the idea 
of sex-difference constantly obtruding itself. 

There is nothing to fear in truth, and the unfolding of 
womanhood is best shielded and guarded when there is con- 
scious knowledge of the glorious possibilities inherent in the 
quality of sex, which in every human being holds the balance 
of power. 



I 



PART II. 




CHAPTER VI. 

The Fulfillment of the Law. 

FTER the unfolding of the flower of womanhood, 
the next progressive step in femininity is the dis- 
covery of the other one whose being shall be comple- 
mentary to her own. She who is most truly woman 
will naturally be much attracted by masculine society, but if 
her mind has been so carefully trained that the self-poise and 
dignity of womanhood is understood, she will not lend herself 
to promiscuous affairs of the heart. Until mind and body are 
fully matured only the spirit of comradery should prevail be- 
tween the young. Under hot-house unfoldment the powers of 
sex are not hardy, and are most liable to misappropriation, be- 
cause reason and judgment have not proportionately developed. 
But love is the fulfillment of the law. It is the second round in 
the ladder of progress, and must permeate every avenue of life 
for man and woman as the warm glow of the sun thrills the 
world of matter, or growth is retarded. 

Emerson on Love. 

Emerson says: "Love is omnipresent in nature as motive 
and reward. Love is our highest word and the synonym of 
God. 

" * * * It is a fire that, kindling its first embers in the 
narrow nook of a private bosom, caught from a wandering 
spark out of another private heart, grows and enlarges until it 

167 



108 THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 

warms and beams upon multitudes of men and women, upon 
the universal heart of all, and so lights up the whole world and 
all nature with its generous flame. It matters not whether we 
attempt to describe the passion at twenty, at thirty, or at eighty 
years. He who paints it at the first period will lose some of 
its later ; he who paints it at the last, some of the earlier traits. 
Only it is to be hoped that by patience and the muses' aid we 
may attain to that inward view of the law which shall describe 
a truth ever young, ever beautiful, so central that it shall com- 
mend itself to the eye, at whatever angle beholden." 

In the same essay Emerson asserts that this- is preparation 
"for a love which knows not sex, nor person, nor partiality, but 
which seeketh virtue and wisdom everywhere, to the end of 
increasing virtue and wisdom." 

It seems a simple thing to love and be loved; but it is so 
only in seeming. In reality it is one of the serious questions 
how properly to align one's self with this universal law. It is 
a subject open to sincere study. One of the present-day writers 
says: 

"Ideal marriage, barring that of a blind man and deaf mute, 
is rare. It is the ante-nuptial condition that is charmful. That 
the post-nuptial state should be occasionally different is but 
natural. It is easier to be a lover than it is to be a husband — 
or even a wife — for the same reason that it is easier to be witty 
now and then than all the time. 

"Yet, like the ideal marriage, the lover who knows his 
business is rare. That business consists in never seeing or 
hearing anything which was not intended for him. He is not 
only near-sighted and hard of hearing — he is wise. He is 
aware that affections are like slippers — they will wear out. 
When they do he takes off his hat and wishes the lady God- 
speed — an attribute parenthetically which is the surest way to 



THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 169 

detain her. In circumstances such as these the man who does 
not know his business loses his head, and loses it not because 
he has lost his lady's heart, but because her heart happened to 
be different from what he thought it. He had his ideal of her 
and feels that he has been swindled. No one likes that. And 
yet the swindle may be entirely his own. 

"A woman, too, has ideals. It is not sacrifices she wants, but 
sympathy, the companionship of one whose likes are hers, 
whose dislikes she can share, and, as now and again occurs, she 
discovers that the man whom she took to be the possessor of 
these attributes is merely an individual who has the power to 
exasperate her at every angle of, life. It is then that she packs 
up her heart and he fails to take off his hat. 

"A condition of affairs such as that, without being epidemic, 
is common enough. To remedy it there is a choice between the 
Chinese system and higher education." 

Need of the Higher Education. 

It is the higher education — that which quickens mind and 
spirit — that is needed ; a knowledge of some of the underlying 
principles of the attractiveness between men and women. The 
completeness each growing soul longs for is attained by a 
man and a woman. Each should contribute toward oneness, 
by careful cultivation of the flower of love, and by reaching 
out for unfoldment toward those things that are good and 
true and beautiful. 

The Yale professor who called forth many vials of wrath 
upon himself by saying not ten per cent of married people real- 
ized their ante-nuptial ideals, was not far from the right. Few 
young people who marry have clear-cut ideals. They, in a 
hazy, uncertain way, expect marriage with a beloved one to 
yield joy complete; when, according to the law of progress, 



170 THE FULFILLMENT OF THE L'AW. 

the mere fact of marriage cannot render one completely happy. 
By assuming this relation they are placed in position for 
proper advancement, providing it is'in accordance with natural 
selection. Then, as a beautiful plant is watched and cared for, 
so must be the attraction which drew together man and wife. 
It cannot be left to care for itself in the present world of 
storm, stress and adversity, or it will surely die. 

The old-time idea that marriage removed the taint of sen- 
suality is worn out. As Lady Cook said, "If one were driven 
into a corner for an argument against the existing marriage 
system, it would only be necessary to refer to the records of 
the divorce courts during one* short year." But even the di- 
vorce courts are signs that "the world do move." Whereas 
marriage formerly meant a union for life "for better or for 
worse," it is now beginning to mean, if not for better , not at 
all. Higher social conditions mean higher ideals ; and, though 
the social fabric is now in the throes of change from a lower to 
a higher standard, all evidence points to the bettering of lines 
in and upon which we live and move. 

Teaching: the Laws of Life, 

Preparation for a thorough understanding of life's laws 
must begin as soon as a child manifests any desire to know 
of the origin of life. Then the growth of knowledge on this 
most beneficent department of nature will be uniform with 
growth in other directions. Abnormality in the sexual appe- 
tite is thereby forestalled. The first lesson continues until 
the approach of puberty; then the second lesson as to the 
physical and psychical changes which will take place is in 
order. The home should be the place — 

"Where children are taught to be laws unto themselves and 
to depend on themselves." 



THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 171 

The third lesson for the young may deal with the question 
of mating. If the first instructions have been what they should 
be and have led the young mind above and outside of itself, 
this pregnant step in advancement will not be so difficult to 
approach as it seems. Parents are very much aided by having 
a wise selection of books at hand. When this question has 
suggested itself in perspective, the youthful mind seizes upon 
all manner of means for enlightenment. To the shame of 
humankind be it said that all knowledge on this subject of 
mating in past generations had to be received from concealed 
or unholy sources. As Dr. Wilcox says, "A good book on 
the physiology and ethics of the sex life ought not to be out of 
place on the center table or the mantel." When we are able 
to live the regenerate life, all possible light will not be out of 
place in the family circle. In fact it will go along with other 
instruction which tends to keep the windows of the soul open 
heavenward. 

A young woman who has not lived a life isolated from the 
other sex is more in command of her powers in men's presence 
than she who has been kept away from them. It is a very 
frequent occurrence that girls released from a convent educa- 
tion heedlessly marry the first importunate suitor. She yields 
to the inscrutable attraction of the sexes without analysis of her 
feelings, or what the estate of marriage may mean. "Friend- 
ship fills the background of all true love," says the author of 
"Ethical Marriage," "and those lovers who are unacquainted 
with friendship's austere sincerity are in the thrall of animal 
passion. Marriage is a permanent companionship for purpose- 
ful work and healthful play, and it is idle to enter into it un- 
less the parties to it are moved by the strong force of tested and 
faithful friendship." 

Acquaintance with aims and desires aids each of a pair of 



172 THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 

lovers to know whether they can co-operate. They must know 
whether they can comprehend each other's ideals and efforts to 
their attainment. 

A Brilliant Frenchman's View. 

Max O'Rell said : "A woman should marry young, very 
young even, so that her husband shall enjoy all the different 
phases of her beauty from the beauty of her girlhood to that 
of second youth, or matronly beauty, which, to my mind, is 
best of all. It is perhaps at forty that a woman is most strik- 
ingly handsome ; invariably so when she has taken care of her- 
self and has been loved and petted by husband and children 
alike. It is then that she knows how to make the best of 
herself, that she best understands how to exercise her gifts and 
charms in the most effective manner." 

To men he said : ''Never marry a woman richer than you, 
or one older than you. Be always gently superior to your 
wife in fortune, in size and age, so that in every possible way 
she may appeal to you for help or protection, either through 
your purse, your strength or your experience in life. Marry 
her at an age that will always enable you to play with her all 
the different characteristic parts of a husband, a chum, a lover, 
an adviser, a protector and just a tiny suspicion of a father." 

A German Opinion. 

This is a Frenchman's point of view. Another from a Ger- 
man point of view is truer from the idea of equality : "Mar- 
riage is more than the means of setting up housekeeping and 
founding a family; the upward striving toward perfection is 
more than a dark longing for an object that may agreeably 
occupy the emotions and the imagination. It is the longing 
equivalent to a noble life, toward the perfection of our being 



THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 173 

through the union with a being in harmony with ourselves; 
toward the complete satisfaction of our personality by becom- 
ing one with another personality, by a blending of souls that 
perfects both as the blending of two metals results in a third 
that is superior to and more endurable than either alone. It 
is finally the need that every nobler individual feels for the 
realization of the ideal, a realization we look for in vain in 
every direction and which life can offer us nowhere but in 
true love. Whithersoever a m.an's fancy, his discoveries, or 
aspirations, may lead him, nothing in the whole domain of 
nature can take the place of the relationship that true love 
unfolds to two thinking and harmonious beings. Such love 
is true life." 

A great many of the considerations for a correct marriage 
should, while the heart is fancy-free, be kept well to the fore. 
It almost goes without saying that mental tastes should be 
similar. Very much marital misery is occasioned through 
lack of balance here. The science of phrenology often aids 
young people to find companions of suitable mental caliber. 

Mental Adaptation, or Hormony. 

The following on mental harmony is from Dr. Foote : 
''Mental adaptation, in marriage, consists in at least an ap- 
proximate correspondence in the tastes, sentiments and pro- 
pensities of husband and wife. * * * The possession of 
high moral and religious sentiments by one and a total destitu- 
tion of them in the other is frequently the cause of matrimonial 
discords and separations. How can a pious wife enjoy the 
society of a husband who forbids her devotional exercises? 
How can a devotional husband have a wife who neither sympa- 
thizes with nor participates in his religious sentiments, while 



174 THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. 

by precept and example she trains up his children regardless of 
his cherished principles ? 

"The organ of inhabitiveness when largely developed gives 
attachment to home and love of country. A wife possessing a 
full development of this organ can never live happily with a 
husband whose inhabitiveness is small. He will ever be on the 
move, like the rolling stone, and his wife must sacrifice her love 
of home and a permanent location by following in his wake, or 
else let him go, and content herself in loneliness. 

" * * * The organ of philoprogenitiveness makes its pos- 
sessor very fond of children. If the wife has this faculty small 
and the husband large, the latter is decidedly inclined to find 
fault with her management of the children, and bickerings arise 
from this cause. * * * As the principal training and care 
of a child devolves upon the mother, large philoprogenitiveness 
is more essential to her. 

"Adhesiveness is an organ that begets powerful attachments. 
It is the chief prompter of a platonic love. It leads the person 
to seek the society of those who have similar proclivities, and 
seals congenial acquaintance with enduring friendship. If 
the husband lacks this quality of mind the wife ever laments 
his want of fraternal affection — feels that he married her 
more for the gratification of his animal desires than for her 
society. If the wife is destitute of this organ she is generally 
cold and repulsive, except when aroused by amative excite- 
ment. 

"Many husbands and wives possess an equal development of 
the organ of amativeness, and still have not the necessary 
physical adaptation to make each other happy. Two persons 
may possess an equal development of the organ of adhesiveness 
and yet fail to become friends for want of congeniality in 
other respects. * * * 



THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW, 175 

"The intellectual powers should be about equal, however di- 
yerse in character; no wife can respect a husband who is 
inferior, and without respect there is no real love. Nor can 
any intelligent husband enjoy the society of a wife who is 
ignorant and perhaps uncouth. * * * 

"Passional love, which warms up only at intervals, can not 
long render the pair blind to mental disparity. And then, too, 
where passion has been the governing attraction, and age cools 
down the impulses of early manhood and womanhood, nothing 
is left to render their matrimonial relations even tolerable. 
* * * There must also exist that mental and moral con- 
geniality which produces powerful friendship — friendship 
which would be deep and lasting were sexual considerations 
unthought of.'' 

The Law of Physicol Adaptation* 

In physical characteristics by which temperaments are made 
manifest the law of opposites rules. The dark should mate 
with the fair, the plump with the slender, the tall with the 
short. The thoroughly feminine admires the thoroughly mas- 
culine. To observe these things is to be placed in harmony 
with natural law, which, Henry Wood says, "is a loving force, 
persistent, reliable, always in its place and pressing to do its 
work." Furthermore he says : "It is this invariableness which 
enables us to use it and make it serviceable. While, therefore, 
it is true we are always under its sovereignty, it is no less a 
fact that when we comply with its conditions it becomes our 
most valuable and indispensable co-worker. Its powerful aid, 
like that of steam or electricity, is always in waiting, only we 
must not dictate its methods of operation." 

Having aligned ourselves with natural law, it will then do 
its perfect work. Those whose aspirations lead them upward 



170 THE FULFILLMENT OF TFIE LAW. 

through the fields of progress soon attain to the point where 
the fact of sex is seldom asserted. We may know the law — 
male and female created He them — know the associations are 
necessary, therefore good, adjust ourselves to the conditions 
and think no more about them. It is only on the basis of clean- 
ness that honor between men and women may be realized. 

Purity of Thougfht a Requisite^ 

Young persons in pursuit of the fulfillment of the law must 
come into the wholesomeness of purity of thought. When this 
has been gained, the opposite sexes can discuss questions re- 
lating to the estate of marriage without self-consciousness or 
false modesty. 

Mrs. Whitney says: "In olden times and under the olden 
civilizations which continue unchanged in oriental countries 
up to the present time, there was not a thought that men and 
women could associate on intimate terms in honorable relations 
as friends and companions and helpers. The idea is, perhaps, 
the prevalent one throughout the world. But there is a higher, 
truer, purer idea in the minds of the best people, and the inter- 
course of men and women in business and professions and 
reforms is demonstrating it to be a fact that they can associate 
on the human plane and help each other and work together 
with no thought of their difference in sex. 

" * * * In the old dispensation, to man every woman 
was a possible victim, and to woman every man was an enemy, 
and she could maintain her virtue only by constant vigilance 
and a war of defense. In contrast with this see the pure 
chivalry of the best men of our time, which is met by the 
most complete confidence of the best women." 

To the pure in mind all things are pure. It has never been 
wise to ignore creative law, and in the present day it is not 



THE FULFILLMENT OF *THE LAW. H? 

forgivable. The holiest relation of the sexes must be placed 
beyond the question of commercial or social advantage, and 
comply with natural selection and the deepest needs of human- 
ity. Marriage must come to be arranged with reference to 
inner needs. While its failures cause it to be a debatable ques- 
tion, yet so long as sympathy, companionship, affection and 
co-operation are deep soul-longings the experiment of mating 
will be apt to go on. 

Let the propensities of human nature be guided by the better 
self, and they will give strength for the attainment of all that 
Is worth striving for. 

Love must be acknowledged as a fact, and as a controlling 
factor in proper living. The more fully it is expressed the 
richer becomes individual life, and the benediction is shed on all 
who come within the circle of its radiance. 

"That love for one from which there doth not spring 
Wide love for all is but a worthless thing." — LowelL 



PART II 




CHAPTER VII. 

The Fruits of Fulfillment. 

'HE great sun in the soul-heavens is love; love 
the fulfillment of the law, the quickener of the pow- 
ers of being. The fruits of fulfillment are as varied 
as in the objective world, where growth depends on 
the amount of sunlight received. But in this connection the 
fruits of fulfilling the law will be considered in the specific 
sense of the mating of one man and one woman. The higher 
conception of the term marriage is beyond and wholly out- 
side of any legal enactment. People may place themselves in 
harmony with external conditions by going through the forms 
necessary for public recognition of a purely personal and 
private relation, but the mere "I-pronounce-you-man-and- 
wife" is not marriage. Perfect marriage can only be based 
upon attraction and natural adaptability. 

The fruits of love in marriage may be said to be growth 
and development of the united pair, and offspring. If there 
is not a true union there should be no children. Homes of 
inharmony produce the cross-grained and contentious of the 
world — which results are retarding progress. 

Happiness in the marriage relation is often marred by 
trifles, whose inroads are so slow they are not noticed until 
almost too late to mend. Jesting leads sometimes to quarrel- 
ing, thence to misunderstandings and lack of confidence. There 

178 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 179 

must be a broad basis of friendly confidence, so that misun- 
derstandings, slights, irritability of temperament, can be dis- 
cussed with a view to future prevention. 

A Whe, Woman's Experience* 

Fowler quotes a lady as saying: *'V/hen I married only 
one point of similarity and sympathy existed between myself 
and husband. I soon found that discussing our differences 
only aggravated them, and adopted this inflexible rule : never 
to argue points of dissimilarity, but simply to establish har- 
mony on the one point on which we agreed. This soon cre- 
ated concord on another keynote, cherishing which soon 
brought us into union upon a third, and so on till now every 
discordant note has become concordant, and we live most 
happily." Wise woman that. 

Many who are able to win a heart's best love seem unable 
to retain it after the first few weeks of wedded life. And 
this is largely due to a lowering of the standard of behavior. 
The outside legal tie is made to serve in place of the com- 
manding of mutual respect through the manifestations of true 
manliness and womanliness. ' 

If the affairs of marriage have not been discussed during 
the days of courtship, two people can hardly realize what the 
ideals of each other may be. No pair is fit for marriage who 
cannot frankly and fully discuss the relation of the sexes, and 
the duties each bears to the other. Kindness, courtesy, unsel-f- 
ishness must needs be practiced by both more unfailingly after 
the I-pronounce-you than before. 

A popular fallacy is that marriage removes a pair from the 
close friendships of friends. Not infrequently one hears that 
a husband or wife is jealous of friends. Jealousy is a green- 
eyed monster that makes the food it feeds upon. No well- 



180 THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 

balanced person but has the power to lift himself to a plane 
so high that jealousy can not obtrude. The duties of matri- 
mony must not close the door to the larger life of friendship, 
or the avenues for growth are closed. Of this Professor Wil- 
cox says : "It is the orthodox doctrine of marriage under the 
present regime ot romance that lovers and married people 
should find in each other the sufficient satisfaction of every 
legitimate want. It is supposed that once a life alliance is 
made the legitimate function of friendship is fulfilled, and 
that straightway correspondences must be closed and that 
personal relationships must be broken off in order that love 
and duty may be concentrated in the home. Friendships may, 
perhaps, be outgrown by the divergence in interests and ideals, 
but the mere fact of betrothal or marriage furnishes the most 
absurd of reasons for cutting any vital cord of sympathy or 
co-operation that may exist between any two persons in the 
world. Who believes that marriage thrives on isolation ? that 
a woman will be a better wife and mother if she enters into 
the soul-life of only one man? that a man will be a better 
husband and father if he cherish the sympathy of only one 
woman ? True, the home calls for specialization of effort and 
care, but every specialization brings with it more and more 
dependence on outside relationships. The household life will 
be self-consuming if it is not fed by wider associations. Every 
friendship of husband and wife will add riches to the home 
store. 

''Friendships are the spiritual doors and windows of the 
home through which the universal light and air find entrance.'* 

Progress is one of the laws that must be recognized to 
make wedded life all it should be. To close all the avenues of 
good that outside atmosphere can bring, encourages narrow- 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 181 

ness and selfishness, two negative qualities we must strive 
against. 

The Unfoldment of Family Life* 

Were each to understand the words, "You must grow to 
new heights if I love you tomorrow," neither would dare, for 
dear love's sake, to settle down to the mental and moral lassi- 
tude so common in marriage. Family life, to be profitable to 
the members of which it is made up, must unfold in mental, 
moral and material strength. Its power is hampered if de- 
velopment is only on one or two lines. 

The tendency of the times is toward small families of 
children. Fewer children and better is a good motto; espe- 
cially should they be few if parents do not know the laws of 
life well enough to insure better ones. 

Mutual attachment of parents is more firmly cemented by 
children in the home. A natural need of the individual is 
gratified in true family relations, which enables the souls of 
its members to expand and grow like leaves in the sunshine. 
"The woman is to the man only the complement of his being, 
in and with whom he begins to live his complete life," said 
Heingen. Vice versa. Again this philosopher tells us : "The 
family is inconceivable without real marriage, marriage is in- 
conceivable without love, and love can no longer be distin- 
guished from prostitution when the bond of union is vitiated 
by compulsion. If propagation is to have an ethical signifi- 
cance and ethical consequence it must not proceed on the plane 
of bestial association, and just as little in false or forced rela- 
tionships. Every child that springs from a union which would 
have ceased had not external considerations or binding fetters 
held it together, transmits the curse of the misfortune and of 
the immorality to the next generation." 



183 THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 

The requisite for having well-born babies is, according to 
Dr. Elliott: 

First. That the parents be well-mated. 

Second. That they are in a condition of health. 

Third. That their own tendencies to evil have been over- 
come to the best of their ability. 

Fourth. That they should take advantage of the molding 
powers of prenatal influences. 

Grant Allen said: "It is good for every man among us 
that he and every other man should be as strong, as well-knit, 
as supple, as wholesome, as effective, as free from vice or 
defect as possible. We see clearly that it is his first duty to 
make his own muscles, his own organs, his own bodily func- 
tions, as perfect as he can make them, and to transmit them 
in like perfection unspoiled to his descendants. We see clearly 
that it is good for every woman among us that she and every 
other woman should be as physically developed and as finely 
equipped for her place as mother as it is possible to make her- 
self. * * * -vVe see that to prepare ourselves for the du- 
ties of paternity and maternity by making ourselves as vigor- 
ous and healthful as we can be is a duty we all owe to our 
children unborn and to one another." 

To be our best selves, then, is to be properly prepared for 
parenthood. Wise and loving generation only can lift the 
status of civilization. 

The Complementary Life of Marriage^ 

The complementary life which well-mated pairs are ena- 
bled to live is another of the fruits of fulfilling the law of love. 

'Tor woman is not undeveloped man, 
But diverse : could we make her as the man. 
Sweet love were slain : his dearest bond is this. 
Not like to like, but like in difference." 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 183 

One supplies deficiencies of the other. Harmonious men- 
tal and moral growth rests upon the integrity of conjugal 
love-life; which thought brings us to the consideration of 
means for preserving the male and female attraction each 
must at some time have held for the other in order to assume 
the marriage relation. 

Two views held on this subject, — which differ only in 
the degree of expression of creative life, — are well worth 
intelligent thought. 

The first is that complete blending of the sexual natures is 
only proper and necessary where propagation is desired. Dr. 
Cowan and Professor Fowler are notable among the older 
writers on the subject. One of Fowler's illustrations is the 
following : 

"A and B have an equal amount of sexuality. A con- 
sumes his in coition, which leaves his voice, manners, posture, 
spirit, intellect, etc., bereft of it. B continently retains his, 
only to have it worked off in imparting sex to his voice, walk, 
actions, etc. ; nobleness and courage to his feelings, with gal- 
lantry to women and admiration and love to the sex, and that 
treatment that wins their regard. You can't consume your 
sexual cake in both forms. Choose w^hether you will do so in 
the animal or in those nobler aspects of mascuUnity." 

The creative life consumed in frequent intercourse is in- 
jurious, robbing a wedded pair of the essential principle for 
preserving the gentleness and courtesy due one another. Love 
expressed in kindliness, in kisses and caresses, yields the neces- 
sary element the sexes have for each other. Love expressed 
only in the sexual embrace to the full propagative act yields 
less than the vitality it consumes, besides making a chance con- 
ception probable. 



184 THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT^ 

Continence the Law of Love* 



1 



Fowler asserts that no semen is deposited in the seminal 
vesicles if the mind is held above the animal plane. "Conti- 
nence," he says, "except in wedlock, and then only to propa- 
gate, is therefore the natural law of love." 

Dr. Cowan advocated procreation every three years; 
Fowler every two years; others only so often as children are 
desired, be it five or ten years. 

Other humanitarians advocate the possibility and the de- 
sirability of the conjugal embrace, provided it is not allowed 
to go beyond the bounds of a love embrace and be made propa- 
gative. In this sacrament of blending there must be no haste, 
no animality — just a quiet exaltation of the entire being of 
that twain who are one flesh. The nervous spasm called the 
orgasm is avoided; therefore all danger of chance conception 
is forestalled. This alone is immeasurably desirable to every 
wife, and should be equally as much to husbands. 

Preventives to Conception* 

The use of prevalent preventives to conception is alsc5 
done away with through this method of expression. Few 
preventives are absolutely sure; and, truly, the use of any 
such blurs the spirituality of conjugal love. The full, free 
blending of the male and female life, — spiritual, emotional 
and physical,— without fear of results, is productive of such 
beneficent powers for activity no married lovers will ever 
return to the animal plane who once taste of its blessings. 

One of the later-day writers says : "Given abundant time 
and mutual reciprocity, the interchange becomes satisfactory 
and complete without emission or crisis by either party. In 
the course of an hour the physical tension subsides, the spir- 
itual exaltation increases, and not uncommonly visions of a 



1 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 185 

transcendent life are seen, and consciousness of new powers 
are experienced." 

Another says: *'When married people once learn how to 
enjoy the sexual association according to this method, they 
will not wish to do otherwise, except by design, for the pur- 
pose of securing offspring. Many barren women Lave be- 
come capable of bearing children through the strength ob- 
tained by practice of this method of union." 

An eminent physician has given it as his opinion that the 
widespread habits of using tobacco, alcohol and other stimu- 
lants have rise in the waste of vital force in incontinence in 
marriage and out. These habits act and re-act on each other 
so that it is rare to find a person defiling the temple of the 
soul by one means alone. Any one of these habits robs an in- 
dividual of power to think and will to do that which is in 
harmony with good old mother Nature, and therefore right. 

The truly mated wise enough to preserve the sweetness 
and warmth of honeymoon days will be comrades and lovers. 

The Old, Sweet Story, Always New* 

The old, old story is always fresher and sw^eeter with each 
telling if kind and courteous acts testify to the truth of the 
words. Time never has lessened the need of the human soul 
for affection, nor dimmed the necessity of blending of the 
sexes. Those matured people who are deprived or deprive 
themselves of this indispensable element may be recognized by 
the hardness of feature and dearth of kindly deeds. Men 
sometimes allow the pursuit of wealth to absorb them to the 
exclusion of the wine of life, which is love. They forget to be 
lovers to their wives and fathers to their babies. It has been 
said that there are more restless women between the ages 
of thirty-five and fifty than of younger years. There are, of 



186 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 



course, causes for this condition. The widowed, the mis- 
mated, the unloved — alas the day! — are in the majority. Many 
of them — perhaps most of them — are unfitted by nature or 
training to do life's battles. Many who think women should 
have a purpose in life besides her female relationship to so- 
ciety, are met with opposition in the family or among friends, 
so that desire to do is frustrated, unless there is the strength 
to override obstacles. One disappointed little woman said 
this : "I do not exactly know what is meant by a 'career,* but 
I think it must be that thing which lies nearest your heart; 
that most sacred of all endowments of the Divine Creator. 
But because your wisdom is so much inferior to His you 
know it is one which should not have been given you, and 
which you must crush out, as He certainly made a mistake in 
giving it to you, and it is not meant for your well-being. It 
is that thing which, when you think of its perfect fulfillment, 
causes a lump to come into your breast and rise up and up till 
it stops your breath and fairly chokes you, and you gasp, and 
say, 'Oh, if it could only be ! '" 

Another who had the talent to write beautiful, helpful 
stories — who has written for the best periodicals — is allowing 
her powers to lie unused because her husband insists on her 
being just his wife — and the superintendent of his household. 
Such cases as this illustrate what Spencer says about unselfish- 
ness being harmful beyond a certain degree. Talents are to 
be used, and used in their natural bent. They must not be 
given up because some one else, without rhyme or reason, in- 
sists upon it. Women can and should follow their life-work 
as well as their brother, man. The woman with an occupation 
suitable to her desires and liking will not be among the restless 
and unsettled. Even if her love-life has not fulfilled its best 
promises, the channel can be turned into universal love for 



THE FRUITS OF FULFILLMENT. 18? 

all creatures, and joy and hope gleaned therefrom. There 
is no excuse for that selfishness which, because one has met 
obstacles, or has been bereaved, causes one to retire into one'3 
self and grieve. The only panacea for any grief is activity, 
which takes consciousness outside of one's self. Those who 
hold for long at trials or obstacles miss the proper moral exer- 
cise for strengthening character. All heights are accessible to 
her or him who will work for success. 

pra Elbertus says: "The man who thinks out what he 
wants to do, and then works, and works hard, will win; and 
no others do, or ever have, or can — God will not have it so." 



PART II 




established. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Home and Home-Making. 

HILE society can not be considered as frag- 
mentary, with divided interests, yet there are 
individual needs to be satisfied for individual 
wQa\. In response to these needs, home was 
Every human being has need of a habitation 
where there is repose for mind and body ; where private atten- 
tion may be given to individual tastes and necessities; where 
habits may be trained that will help to form character, until 
the human mind can know itself, and so be beyond the power 
of habit. 

Home life does not necessarily mean married life. Man, in 
common with all higher animals, has "the homestead instinct," 
which is associated with the natural desire for domestic pri- 
vacy. Following instinctive want of a place of safety, of a 
place in which to rear a brood of offspring, home became an 
institution. 

The majority of homes are made up of father, mother, and 
children; and where the binding tie is love, and there is har- 
mony and progress, it is the ideal place of refuge. But the 
detached members of families have the home instinct the same 
as their more fortunate brethren and sisters, and the sense of 
being unsettled often leads to ill-considered marriages. For 
this reason it is always well for two, or three, or more, con- 

188 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 189 

genial people to set up for themselves their household gods, 
until the right opportunity comes for marriage. Boarding- 
houses and hotels have been made to serve for these parts of 
families, and sometimes for families, but it is very seldom 
a sense of hominess pervades their atmosphere. 

The more progressive of "bachelor girls" have begun to 
establish households and five as befit creatures of civilization. 
The bachelor man, somewhat in advance of his sisters, has 
been doing the same. Conservative society sometimes arouses 
itself sufficiently to object to these unmarried households, on 
the ground that they interfere with the founding of family 
homes. This is only true as far as the inferior, or the not 
true, marriage is concerned. Attraction between the sexes is a 
fact in nature. It is a law that no private arrangement of 
humankind can set aside; and if bachelor households shall do 
away with marriages of convenience, the more of them the 
better. 

At the present stage of development, home life largely suf- 
fers because of unskilled management. The kind of skill need- 
ful to adjust affairs successfully has not been considered nec- 
essary to train for, and, as Mrs. Stetson says, "there are sever- 
al professions involved in our clumsy method of housekeeping. 
A good cook is not necessarily a good manager, nor a good 
manager an accurate and thorough cleaner, nor a good cleaner 
a wise purchaser. Under the free development of these 
branches a woman would choose her profession, train for it 
and become a most valuable functionary in her own branch, all 
the while living in her own home; that is, she would live in 
it as a man lives in his home, spending certain hours of the 
day at work and others at home." 

The onward march of progress has led woman outside of 
the four walls of home and the work of the church. Fifty 



190 HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 

years ago, very few avenues were open for the expression of 
woman's activities outside of the household. To be self-sus- 
taining had a sound of something improper. "Has she no 
yuan to keep her?" But the growing spirit of freedom causes 
the able-bodied, wholesome-minded woman not to want to be 
"kept." She desires to be strong and secure in her own 
strength as a human, and not to t>e "taken care of" as an 
adjunct of the masculine sex. 

The Changes of a Century* 

The following by Mrs. Sangster expresses the changes the 
past century brought about for woman : 

"In nothing is the march of progress more evident than in 
the present attitude of woman tow^ard life, as compared with 
the point of view of her predecessor. The change is as marked 
as that from the candles of the opening nineteenth to the elec- 
tric lights of the opening twentieth century. A hundred years 
ago woman was a timid being, to be sheltered and protected, 
to be worshiped and complimented, and she lived up to the 
ideal men then held as peculiarly feminine. She had great 
reserves of bravery and patriotism under her delicate exterior 
— for in every age womanhood remains the same in essentials 
— but she by no means met man on equal terms in any field. 
The dawn of the old century found women with few business 
opportunities and somewhat restricted educational privileges. 
Here and there was a learned woman, and many women were 
clever, resourceful and intelligent, but the curriculum designed 
for the sex was less strenuous and less expansive than that of 
today. Few girls went further than the common school, 
topped off with a foam of graceful accomplishments. 

"Marriage was the feminine goal. She who did not marry 
was regarded with compassion as a failure, and her parents 
were openly pitied. After marriage, the average woman re- 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 191 

tired into the seclusion of her home, and it is not too much 
to say that at fifty she was frankly old. The young ruled in 
the drawing-room, and the atmosphere was crude in conse- 
quence. Mothers are as needful to society as daughters in 
their bloom, and this the new century acknowledges with 
pride. 

"The woman doctor, the woman lawyer, the woman jour- 
nalist and the trained nurse were unknown when the nine- 
teenth century began. The twentieth would be bewildered 
without them. In the old days, woman's activities were lim- 
ited to home management and church work. Housekeeping 
bristled with various labors. Soap and candles were of domes- 
tic manufacture, crushed sugar was broken off the loaf by the 
bit, there were no sewing-machines, nor wringers, nor station- 
ary tubs, nor could pickles and conserves be purchased. Ready- 
made clothing could not be bought. Nevertheless, this busy 
housewife was a voluminous letter-writer, crossing and re- 
crossing her gossipy sheets to save postage; she was often a 
deft amateur surgeon, and had remedies on hand for the family 
ills. She was a good neighbor and a stanch friend, and her 
manners were formal and elegant. Somehow she had more 
time than we have for little courtesies. 

"In the new century woman's sphere has grown larger. Her 
charities are broader, though less intimate and individual. 
Their objects are greatly multiplied. Among her most benefi- 
cent fads must be classed her zeal for town and city adorn- 
ment, for clean streets, and for reformed ash-barrels. She 
looks after the waifs and strays of civilization, peers into alms- 
house and prison cell, and fights cruelty to dumb animals. 
An inborn and inherited hatred of dirt and disorder leads her 
to combat both wherever she finds them, and her finger is often 
m the municipal pie to its manifest advantage. 



^^^ HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 

'The most conspicuous fad of the new century woman is 
devotion to athletics. Our girls of today are magnificently 
vital, splendid specimens of health; beauty and endurance; 
they are taller than their mothers, and carry themselves with 
an air of distinction in keeping with their superb stature and 
elastic strength. Outdoor exercise confers on them color, 
grace and vigor; they play the games of the hour with skill 
and audacity, and their wholesome life in the open has given 
them a charm far in excess of semi-individualism and inter- 
esting fragility. The fad of the new century woman is to be 
ready for anything, broadly educated, spiritually enlightened, 
and physically equal to every "demand." 

''Womon's Sphere,'' 

The forces of inertia, the conservatives, still prate about 
"woman's sphere," and, had they despotic power, would force 
all of womankind to domestic service until the inevitable re- 
bellion would come. 

"If a modern man, with all his intellect and energy and 
resource, were forced to spend all his days hunting with a bow 
and arrow, fishing with a bone-pointed spear, waiting hungrily 
on his traps and snares in hope of prey, he could not bring to 
his children or to his wife the uplifting influences of the true 
manhood of our time," says Mrs. Stetson. "Even if he 
started with a college education, even if he had large books 
to read (when he had time to read them) and improving con- 
versation, still the economic efforts of his life, the steady 
daily pressure of what he had to do for his living, would check 
the growth of higher powers. If all men had to be hunters 
from day to day, the world would be savage still. While all 
women have to be house servants from day to day, we are 
still a servile world. 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING, 193 

"A home life with a dependent mother, a servant wife, is not 
an ennobling influence. We feel this at times. The man, 
spreading and growing with the world's great growth, comes 
home and settles into the tiny talk and fret, or the alluring 
animal comfort of the place, with a distinct sense of coming 
down. It is pleasant, it is gratifying to every sense, it is kept 
warm and soft and pretty to suit the needs of the smaller and 
feebler creature who, is forced to stay in it. It is even consid- 
ered a virtue for the man to stay in it and to prize it, to value 
his slippers and his newspaper, his hearth fire and his supper 
table, his spring bed and his clean clothes, above any other in- 
terests. 

"The harm does not lie in loving home and in staying there, 
as one can, but in the kind of home and the kind of woman- 
hood that it fosters ; in the grade of industrial development on 
which it rests." 

If advancement has gone on while working against the ten- 
dency to remain stationary, how much more swiftly will it 
advance after this resistance has been overcome? 

Man and woman cannot, in harmony with nature's laws, 
occupy separate, distinctive spheres of activity. Together an 
energy is generated not possible where working alone. It is 
the force of sex diffusing itself through exertions; the force 
which most often Is allowed only to be generated in the draw- 
ing-room and ball-room and which does not there find the best 
avenues for use. 

Haying Time in Scotlond^ 

The author of "Little Journeys to the Homes of English 
Authors" illustrates this law in the following : 

"The Scotch are great economists — the greatest in the world. 
Adam Smith, the father of the science of economics, was a 



194 mOME AND HOME-MAKING. 

Scotchman, and Draper, author of 'A History of Civilization/ 
flatly declares that Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' has 
influenced the people of earth for good more than any book 
ever written — save none. The Scotch are great conservators 
of energy. 

"The practice of pairing men and v^omen in the hay-field 
gets the work done. One man and woman going down the 
grass-grown path afield might linger and dally by the way. 
They would never make hay, but a company of a dozen or 
more men and women would not only reach the field but would 
do a lot of work. In Scotland the hay-harvest is short — when 
the grass is in bloom, just right to make the best hay, it must 
be cut. And so the men and women, the boys and girls sally 
forth. It is a jolly picnic time, looked forward to with fond 
anticipation, and gazed back upon with sweet, sad memories, 
or otherwise, as the case may be. 

"But they all make hay while the sun shines and count it 
joy. Liberties are allowed during haying time that otherwise 
would be declared scandalous; during haying time the Kirk 
wc:ives her censor's right, and priest and people mingle joy- 
ously. 

"Wives are not jealous during hay-harvest, and husbands 
never fault-finding, because they each get even by allowing a 
mutual license. 

"In Scotland during haying time every married man works 
alongside of some other man's wife. To the psychologist it is 
somewhat curious how the desire for propriety is overridden 
by a stronger desire — the desire for the shilling. The Scotch 
farmer says 'anything to get the hay in' — and by loosening a 
bit the strict bands of social custom the hay is harvested. 

"In the hay-harvest the law of natural selection holds; and 
trysts continue year after year. Old lovers meet, touch handc 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 195 

in a friendly scuffle for a fork, drink from the same jug, recline 
at noon and eat lunch in the shade of a friendly stack and talk 
to heart's content as they Maud Muller on a summer's day. 

"Of course this joyousness of the haying time is not wholly 
monopolized by the Scotch. Haven't you seen the jolly hay- 
ing parties in Southern Germany, France, Switzerland and 
the Tyrol? How the bright costumes of the men and jaunty 
attire of the women gleam in the glad sunshine ! But the prac- 
tice of pairing is carried to a degree of perfection in Scotland 
that I have not noticed elsewhere. Surely it is a great eco- 
nomic scheme! 

"It is like that invention of a Connecticut man which 
utiHzes the ebb and flow of the ocean tides to turn a grist-mill. 
And it seems queer that no one has ever attempted to utilize 
the waste of dynamic force involved in the maintenance of the 
company sofa. 

"In Ayrshire I have started out with a haying party of 
twenty — ten men and ten women — at six o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and worked until six at night. I never worked so hard 
or did so much. All day long there was a fire of jolly jokes 
and gibes, interspersed with song, while beneath all ran a 
gentle hum of confidential interchange of thought. The man 
who owned the field was there to direct our efforts and to urge 
us on by merry raillery, threat and joyous rivalry. The point 
in this — we did the work. 

"Take heed, ye Captains of Industry, and note this truth, 
that when men and women work together, under right influ- 
ences, much good is accomplished and the work is pleasur- 
able." 

Energy as expressible through the human family does not 
belong to one sex or the other. Wherever an individual ap- 
proaches the perfection of his kind, through him or her flow 



196 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING, 



the forces that lift civilization. Fra Elbertus tells us, "We have] 
been mired in the superstition that sex is unclean, and there- 
fore honesty and expression in love, matters have been ta- 
booed. But the day will yet dawn when we will see that it 
takes two to generate thought ; that there is the male man and 
the female man, and only where these two walk together hand 
in hand is there a perfect sanity and a perfect physical, moral 
and spiritual health." 

In work, of course, there will be specialization as tastes aind 
talents differ, but it must not be that domestic service is 
woman's alone, and all other work man's alone. Woman will 
direct her powers toward that branch whereby she may be of 
the best service, train for it, and thus fill her niche as a 
human factor. 

A writer in the North American Review at the beginning 
of the new century estimates that women occupy seventeen 
per cent of all the occupations. In the face of the difficulties 
to be overcome before being able to get outside of her "sphere" 
this is a very good percentage. This magazine writer takes 
it as an indication of "the moral degeneracy of women," which 
shows that there are yet obstacles being thrown out to bar the 
way of freedom in industrial activity. 

It is no more best that all women should give all their time 
to serving the family than that all men should hunt and fish 
to clothe and feed it. The very inter-relationship of society 
in its varying needs of the present makes diversification neces- 
sary. To do something for others while others do something 
for you is the best point to reach in the social relation. "Blessed 
is the man (or woman) who has found his work." 

Moreover, as an advanced thinker says, "All work is for the 
worker. What becomes of the product of your work and how 
the world receives it matters little. But how you do it is 



HOME AND HOME-ITAKING. 197 

everything. We are what we are, on account of the thoughts 
we have thought and the things we have done. As a muscle 
grows strong only through use, so does every attribute of the 
mind and every quality of the soul take on new strength 
through exercise. And on the other hand, as a muscle not 
used atrophies and dies, so will the faculties of the spirit die 
through disuse. 

"Thus we see why it is very necessary that we should exer- 
cise our highest and best. We are making character — ^building 
soul-fiber; and no rotten threads must be woven into this web 
of life. 

"Work is for the worker. Can you afford to do slipshod, 
evasive, hypocritical work ? Can you afford to shirk, or make- 
believe, or practice pretense in any act of life? No, no ; for all 
the time you are molding yourself into a deformity and drift- 
ing away from the Divine. What the world does and says 
about you is really no matter, but what you think and what 
you do are questions as vital as fate." 

Home to Unfold the Largfer Life* 

That place is not home which is merely a domestic labora- 
tory — a place where are done those things relating wholly to 
the physical. How it shall be changed to unfold the larger 
life is a question exercising the mental faculties of all who 
vv'ish to assist in the world's social development; and the riddle 
is being solved. When the newer, better structure is reared 
the old will be deserted, for the better becomes the necessity 
as soon as it is generally recognized. 

The specialization of industries connected with the house- 
hold has begun, as the public laundry, bakery, tailoring and 
dressmaking establishments and eating-houses attest. The 
conservative Pharisees, however, are wont to give themselves 



198 HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 

congratulations and consider others not up to the mark who 
patronize anything outside of home industry for home con- 
sumption. To eat away from home bespeaks wifely "shift- 
lessness" — likewise the consuming of bakery goods and pre- 
pared conserves and pickles, and such. What we are used 
tp so easily becomes what we like and must have, until some 
one calls attention to the advantages of different procedure. 

The mental attitude into which we have been trained clings 
tenaciously, so that it is hard to distinguish between those 
things the result of such training and those which are made 
known to us by coming into the light. We are in darkness 
until we begin to think, question and investigate; and then 
the dawning of the light is dazzling until the iris of the mind's 
eye adjusts itself. But "when the judgment's weak the 
prejudice is strong." And with the question of simplifying the 
machinery of home-life the judgment is held back, because 
age-long tradition has photographed upon the public mind 
certain ideals of home hard to efface. ''We have always done 
thus and so; therefore, it must always be," has been the logic 
of those who have not made the effort of thinking for them- 
selves, or daring to dift'er from the established order. 

To quote again from the healthy reason of our modern 
woman philosopher: ''The economically dependent woman, 
spending the accumulating energies of the race in her small 
cage, has thrown out a tangled mass of expression as a large 
plant throws out roots in a small pot. She has crowded her 
limited habitat with unlimited things — things useful and un-. 
useful, ornamental and unornamental ; and the labor of her 
life is to wait upon these things and keep them clean. 

"The free woman having room for full individual expres- 
sion in her economic activities and in her social relation will 
not be forced so to pour out her soul in tidies and photograph 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 199 

holders. The home will be her place of rest and not of uneasy 
activity; and she will learn to love simplicity at last. This 
will mean better sanitary conditions in the home, more beauty 
and less work." 

William Morris' Definition of Art. 

William Morris said : *'We need fewer things and want them 
better. All your belongings should *mean something to you.' 
To this end all shams must be tabooed. Make-believes have 
a deteriorating effect on the morals of a family. The thought 
of make-believe expressed in any article of furnishing is a bad 
object-lesson. The loud, inharmonious effects must also give 
w^ay to the quiet and simple. Elaborateness of furnishings, 
decoration, clothing, manners, is relegated to the splendors of 
barbarism, where attention must be called to externals because 
the lack of development of the inner life makes it impossible 
to be manifest. In all the realms of art the subtle is under- 
mining the blatant and aggressive. Art, by the way, *is only 
the best way of doing things'; and that in life is best which 
is made to serve." 

Simplicity in house furnishings leaves the mind more time 
for devising means of improvement along other lines, not the 
least of which is healthfulness in dress and in the selection 
and preparation of foodstuffs that will nourish instead of pleas- 
ing the palate. 

Education has for its supposed aims culture of the indi- 
vidual; but there is. a brand of education that is veneer, that 
trains the mind to like a thing well-said better than a true one, 
to prefer a trained manner to a sincere one, to think graceful- 
ness of manner, aspect or dress to be more than the value of 
substance and heart. Whereas truth, courage, loyalty and the 
power of concentration must be the foundation of all that is 
worth while. All else is to be superstructure. 



200 HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 

After considering home to be a place for rest, for simplifi- 
cation of labor, and a place of equality for all its members, 
last and best it is where our best selves must be warmed and 
nurtured into active life. It is a place where each matured 
person at least becomes positive against all annoying influences, 
and where the little ones, if such there be, are taught the duties 
of kindness, cheerfulness and consideration of others by ex- 
ample and precept. Anything which is a lesson to a child 
to think of and care for others, and not to place itself as the 
center of family interest — ^the principal receiver instead of one 
of the givers — helps to counteract the tendency to selfishness 
which is apt to be fostered by unremitting parental care. Ac- 
tivity in all the kindly offices to different members of the fam- 
ily and to playmates is the surest way to lead the young to the 
habit of doing right and thinking for others. A far better 
grade of happiness is thus secured the child. Consciousness 
should always be beyond self. Self-gratification brings the 
poorest of returns ; it is evanescent ; it brings not the blessings 
which doing for others will insure. The most satisfying thing 
in life is love and sympathy, and this is never gained as an 
end, but must come spontaneously, because our characteristics 
and habits are such as to make them ours. 

''Happiness for All, from AU*^ 

Ordinarily all states of mind are contagious. If in a home 
ill-temper, fault-finding and the like are allowed to be culti- 
vated through expression, one disagreeable member of the 
family will make the atmosphere unpleasant for all. Sensitive 
childhood feels it and returns it in kind. Instead the home 
motto should be "happiness for all, from all,'' and the cultiva- 
tion of the better mental attitudes made a duty among adults 
and children. Wherever there are natural tendencies to sad- 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. ^01 

ness or ill-nature they should be crowded out by the persistent 
expressions of gladness. 

"When love, health, happiness and plenty hear 
Their names repeated over day by day, 
They wing their way like answering fairies near, 
Then nestle down within our homes to stay." 

"All that our hearts approve of wit, poetry, sentiment and 
sense we should endeavor to live in our daily home lives," and 
thus become like what the best of us approves. We should 
make the words used in our homes kind, conciliatory and sooth- 
ing, and thus insure restfulness, happiness and peace to those 
who dwell therein. 

It is said that the world reflects back to us what is in our- 
selves. Henry Wood says it this way: "That which men 
have in themselves they see everywhere objectively reflected. 
One who is disposed to cheat sees cheating in the atmosphere 
around him, until he mistakenly concludes that it is a part of 
the Established Order. But it is entirely in men, and Law 
knows it not." 

Goodness attracts, happiness attracts, friendliness attracts. 
Would any have friends ? Then be a friend. Would you 
approximate happiness in the home? Open the doors to the 
influences of human weal; express thoughts of helpfulness. 
The poet Edgerton has set forth the following thoughts : 

'Tell Him So.^ 

"If you have a word of cheer 
That may light the pathway drear 
Of a brother pilgrim here. 

Let him know. 
Show him you appreciate 



^2 HOME AND HOME-MAKING, 

What he does, and do not wait 
Till the heavy hand of fate 

Lays him low. 
If your heart contains a thought 
That would brighter make his lot, 
Then, I beg you, hide it not ; 

Tell him so. 

"Life is hard enough at best, 
But the love that is expressed 
Makes it seem a pathway blest 

To our feet; 
And the troubles that we share 
Seem the easier to bear. 
Smile upon your neighbor's care 

As you greet. 
Rough and stony are our ways, 
Dark and dreary are our days, 
But another's love and praise 

Makes them sweet. 

'Wait not till your friend is dead 
Ere your compliments are said. 
For the spirit that has fled. 

If it know. 
Does not need to speed it on 
Our poor praise; where it has gone 
Love's eternal, golden dawn 

Is aglow. 
But unto our brother here 
That poor praise is very dear. 
If you've any word of cheer, 

Tell him so." 



HOME AND HOME-MAKING. 303 

Homes are splendid factors in social advancement through 
the power to radiate good to all who may be brought in con- 
tact with their influences of geniality. Through outside 
friendship the beneficence of one good home may be spread to 
many hearts. 

It is an ideal of such homes we should ever strive to ac- 
tualize; homes in which there is a living, throbbing desire to 
attain to all in the soul realm that is best, whatever be our 
material environment. No ideal was ever so high v/e are not 
made better by striving toward it ; provided, it is in harmony 
wJ.-h the thought of the unity of human kind. 



PART IL 




CHAPTER IX. 
Mature Life. 

HE desire for long life, health and plenty has ex- 
isted from time immemorial; with each succeeding: 
generation it is re-asserted, and the dawn of the 
twentieth century finds the quest of youth as earnest 
as ever. Only the truth of an idea endows it with living 
power. And if this desire were not for the weal of human- 
kind it would long ago have been left behind. 

The magical fountain of youth has been found to exist with- 
in ourselves. To the successful searchers it does not mean 
that the change called death shall never come, though the pos- 
sibility of overcoming death itself is recognized by some. The 
fountain of youth is fed from the perpetual spring of love ; the 
more that is given, the fresher and purer and more plentiful 
remains the fountain's supply. "All the currents of nature 
are love energies," says Burry. "From the basis of iove alone 
must man attempt his interpretation of life. 

"The man who not only feels the love elements surging 
through him, but who has commenced to harness these forces, 
recognizing them as the creative principles of nature, has be- 
come a great magnetic center." 

The perfect love which "casteth out fear" is the rock that 
must be the foundation for actual growth : to cease growing is 
to cease living. Mankind has permitted and encouraged it- 

204 



MATURE LIFE. 205 

self in anticipating the infirmities of old age, and by degrees 
dropping into mental and physical inacfivity. 

''Man has always considered life synonymous with sorrow 
and suffering. He has always had an instinctive longing for 
happiness and an indefinite belief that it was possible to attain 
his desire, but the unhappiness of thwarted hopes and blasted 
ambitions has followed in the wake of his ignorant efforts. 
In youth and middle age he looks forward to the consumma- 
tion of his wishes with an eagerness and zest that he after- 
wards remembers with a cynical smile. He has grown pessi- 
mistic and lost interest in former pursuits, and has settled to a 
grudging endurance of the remaining years he considers 
allotted to him." 

When the desire for health, plenty and long life is not 
realized among externals, some of the race set themselves to 
arguing that unalloyed happiness does not exist, and thereby 
align themselves with the negative forces of destruction. And 
so unhappiness, disease and death (so-called) become realities. 

In order that the waters from the fountain of youth may not 
be clogged and made stagnant, humankind must be free. Or, 
as has been repeatedly stated, live your own life regardless of 
what may be other people's creeds or beliefs. A writer in the 
Nautilus says : ''Realize that what other people do or think, or 
do not do or think, has nothing to do with what you are or 
will be. Furthermore, the acts and words and thoughts of 
others are none of your business. They have a right to treat 
you in any way you let them treat you, and think of you any- 
thing they choose. You attract exactly what you get, and you 
need it all to wake up to yourself. 

"Let them alone to think out their own salvation, and set 
yourself to make something, of your own life and thought- 
force. You have been frittering away your thought energy 



206 MATURE LIFE. 

upon these people. That is why you have that tired feeling 
and cannot concentrate." 

If things go wrong the fault will iiever be found outside 
one's self, although human pride will have it so. All obstacles 
that are to be overcome are for the purposes of development. 
Where there is nothing to be overcome, strength is not made 
manifest. It is only when we come to regard each experience 
as a needful lesson that the real meaning of life will be under- 
stood. We are the creatures of circumstances only so long as 
we bow before them : when we have a realising sense of our 
own power, then may we dominate circumstances. 

Youth in Old Agfc. 

For the preservation of the spirit of youthfulness it is neces- 
sary to be one with the present. Even if one believes he has a 
new grasp on truth and wishes to give of what he has to 
society, he cannot isolate himself and go to the mountain top 
beyond and above his fellow-creatures. In the generations 
gone only those people retained youthfulness against advanc- 
ing years who were the comrades of their children. 'Others 
who were merely trainers grew old in mind as well as body and 
died, and people said their time had come, while those who are 
young, though beyond the fourscore, are illy spared. 

Youth is the training-time of mind and body. Mr. Glad- 
stone said : 'To train the mind should be the first object, and 
to stock it the next." School life is only preparatory to the 
serious work of maturer years. There is no age limit wherein 
the aggressive mind will cease to appropriate that which, it 
can assimilate for growth. 

As the reason and judgment mature, fewer mistakes will be 
made and less ground retraced. We learn to do by doing. 
While youth is attracted by what pleases the senses, the ma- 
ture recognize only that beauty which is useful — that in life 
which is genuine. 



MATURE LIFE, 207 

It has been said that as a rule people do not change much 
after they are forty; that experience thereafter is only a 
deepening of ruts and not added power for progress. When 
this is true freedom to think has not been reached ; people are 
going by the rule of precedent and are not exploring the realm 
of truth for themselves. 

There are numerous examples to prove that the best life 
work has been done after fifty years. The resources of ma- 
ture life are so many more than those of childhood no one who 
is free will ever regret the vanished days. 

The following examples of work after fifty are from an 
"article in the Coming Age: 

Socrates was an old man when he began the study of music, 
and he gave to the world his wisest sayings when he was sixty- 
eight. 

Plato, who said an old man could not learn any more than 
he could run, was prosecuting his philosophic studies as a pupil 
until he was forty years of age, and did not begin to teach 
philosophy until he was about fifty, and he retained the vigor 
of all his faculties to the ripe age of eighty-two, and handed 
down to posterity all of his grandest sayings after the age of 
fifty. 

Aristotle continued a pupil until he was thirty-seven, and he 
was fifty-three before he established his school of philosophy at 
Athens. It was probably after this that he wrote his works 
which governed the logical thought of the world for so many 
ages. 

Bacon was sixty before he arrived at the full maturity of his 
genius. It was then he gave to the world Ws "Novum Or- 
ganum," which has reconstructed science and has given an 
entirely new method of scientific investigation. 

Hobbes was sixty-two when he published his treatise on 



?.08 



MATURE LIFE. 



''Human Nature," and sixty-three before he completed his 
"Leviathan." 

Copernicus was nearly fifty before the, theory of planetary 
motions which now prevails suggested itself to his mind. Nor 
did he succeed in establishing its truth to his own satisfaction 
until he was seventy, when he gave it to the world. 

Coke did not make his first attempt as an author on law 
until he was fifty years old. His great works were produced 
between that age and the time of his death at eighty. 

Mr. Benjamin, Q. C, who went from America to wrest the 
chief prizes from English lawyers, was almost sixty when he 
was called to the English bar, and within five years he was 
making three times a judge's income. 

John G. Abbott wrote "History of the American Civil War" 
at sixty-one, and "Romance of Spanish History" at sixty- 
five. 

Agassiz was fifty-nine years of age when he made an ex- 
ploration in Brazil with his wife and scientific assistants; and 
the steamer Colorado was made ever memorable by the course 
of lectures which this most popular of scientific lecturers gave 
on board. 

Jean le Rond d'Alembert ranks as one of the greatest bene- 
factors to science of the last century. He was fifty when he 
wrote the preliminary discourse to the celebrated "Encyclope- 
dia" which he had assisted Diderot to compile, and which drew 
from Condorcet the compliment that in a century only two or 
three men appeared capable of such writing. He was fifty-five 
when he was elected secretary to the French Academy and 
wrote the biography of seventy of its members. 

Stephen Alexander, American astronomer, was fifty-four 
when he made his expedition to Labrador to make observations 
on solar eclipses, and six'y-three when he went west for the 
same purpose. 



MATURE LIFE. 209 

Voltaire, French poet, historian and philosopher, and the 
most celebrated writer of the last century, did his greatest work 
after fifty, and at eighty-four produced his tragedy "Irene", 
in Paris, where he was everywhere attended by crowds, occu- 
pied a director's seat at the Academy, and was crowned at the 
theater. 

John J. Audubon, distinguished American ornithologist, 
was fifty years of age when his first famous volume of "The 
Birds of America" in folio, one hundred colored plates, draw- 
ings and colorings, made by himself, appeared in London. He 
was fifty-nine when the fourth volume completed the splendid 
work, which contains in all one thousand and sixty-five figures. 
He wrote "Quadrupeds of America" when near seventy years 
of age. 

Pierre Augustin, Baron de Beaumarchais, politician, artist, 
(iramatist and merchant, was forty-six when he wrote "Le 
Barbier de Seville," and fifty-two when he wrote his famous 
"Le Mariage de Figaro." 

Jean Pierre de Beranger, one of the greatest lyric poets that 
France has produced, was between fifty and sixty when he 
completed his fourth series of songs. Speaking of these mas- 
terpieces of poetic skill, Goethe says: "His songs have shed 
tears of joy into milHons of hearts." 

Baron John Jacob Berzelius, one of the greatest chemists of 
modern times, at sixty-nine filled the chair of chemistry at 
Stockholm (Sweden) University. From fifty to sixty-nine, 
by his patient labors and ingenious investigations, he did more 
to lay the foundations of organic chemistry than any other 
chemist. 

Bismarck was fifty-one when he carried out his long-cher- 
ished project of making Prussia the real head of Germany. He 
was sixty-seven when he accepted the challenge so rashly 



210 MATURE LIFE. , 

offered by Napoleon III. and engaged the whole of Germany 
in successful war against France. 

Karl Wilhelm Boettinger, Professor of Literature and His- 
tory in the University of Erlangen, wrote the "History of Ger- 
many and the Germans" at fifty-five, and the "Universal His- 
tory" at fifty-nine. He wrote all of his most important his- 
torical works after fifty-five. 

Matthew Boulton, celebrated English engineer and member 
of the principal learned societies of Europe, whose long life 
was constantly and almost uninterruptedly devoted to the ad- 
vancement of the useful arts and the promotion of the com- 
mercial interests of his country, did his best and most useful 
work from sixty-five to eighty-one. 

Sir John Bowring, distinguished English diplomatist and 
author, did much of his famous work after sixty-seven years 
of age. 

Lord Brougham, eminent English advocate, jurist, philoso- 
pher and statesman, gave to the world his best work from fifty 
to eighty-nine. 

John Henry Kirk Brown, American sculptor, was fifty seven 
when he began his equestrian statue of General Scott, which is 
considered his best work, and his "Resurrection" when sixty- 
three. 

Joseph Rodes Buchanan wrote "Anthropology" at sixty- 
eight; "The New Education" at sixty-nine; "Science of Des- 
tiny" at eighty-three; working with undimmed intellect till 
his death. 

Phillips Brooks was fifty-two when he delivered his two 
great lectures on "Tolerance," in New York, and continued 
his great work in the intellectual world to the end of his life at 
fifty-eight. 

William Cullen Bryant wrote many of his most beautiful 



I 



MATURE LIFE. 211 

poems after fifty, and translated the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" 
at seventy-six. 

<jeorge Loring Brown was sixty-two when he painted "Ni- 
agara by Moonlight," and sixty-six when he painted the 
"Doge's Palace at Sunrise." 

Sir Astley Cooper, F. R. S., celebrated English surgeon 
and anatomist, wTote "Anatomy and Diseases of the Breast" 
when sixty-one, and his work on "Dislocations and Fractures" 
at sixty-four. 

Disraeli was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer when 
fifty-four years of age. When sixty-one he became financial 
minister under the Earl of Derby for the third time. He be- 
came minister of the crown when sixty-three ; and wrote "Lo- 
thair" when sixty-five. 

Emerson published "English Traits" when fifty-three, and 
the "Conduct of Life" when fifty-nine. 

Faraday, the distinguished English natural philosopher and 
chemist, when fifty-five years of age received the Royal and 
Rumford medals for his discovery of diamagnetism and the 
influence of magnetism upon light. When fifty-six he dis- 
covered the magnetic character of oxygen, and also the mag- 
netic relations of flame and gases. 

Froude wrote the "History of England from the Fall of 
Wolsey" when fifty-two years of age. 

Gladstone translated Farini's "Stato Romano" when fifty; 
at sixty wrote "The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age," and 
continued active in mind and body until his death at eighty- 
two. 

Gliick, the German musical composer, presented his master- 
pieces after fifty years of age, and his greatest performances 
were executed after he was sixty. 



213 



MATURE LIFE, 



Goethe, the greatest modern poet of Germany, wrote the 
first part of *Taust" when fifty-six years of age, the second 
part appearing when he was eighty-two. "Wilhelm Meister" 
appeared when he was sixty-nine. 

Samuel Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy, pubhshed 
"Medicine of Experience" when fifty, and the ''Organon of 
Rational Medicine" when fifty-five. 

Handel's "Messiah" was not completed until his fifty-sev- 
enth year; at his death, at the age of seventy-four, he was in 
full possession of his musical powers. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes did much of his best work after 
passing the half century mark. 

Victor Hugo wrote "Les Miserables" when sixty years of 
age. 

Humboldt, at sixty, explored the eastern province of Russia, 
the results of which trip were pubhshed by him at the age of 
seventy-four, entitled ''Central Asia, — Research on its Moun- 
tain Chains and Climatology." He published "Kosmos" and 
other works between the ages of seventy-six and eighty-two. 

Michael Angelo was fifty-eight when he began to paint the 
"Last Judgment," which occupied eight years. After the age 
of seventy he mastered the science of architecture. 

Milton completed "Paradise Lost" when fifty-seven, and 
"Paradise Regained" at sixty-three. 

Sir Isaac Newton, philosopher, mathematician and astrono- 
mer,' was sixty-two when his treatise on optics was published. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds was sixty-one when he painted the 
beautiful allegorical portrait of "Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic 
Muse." 

Benjamin West was fifty-four when he succeeded Sir Josli- 
ua Reynolds as President of the Royal Academy, and was in 
his sixty-fifth year when he painted his celebrated picture of 
"Christ Healing the Sick." 



MATURE LIFE. 213 

Titian painted his "St. Peter, Martyr," when he was fifty- 
one, and worked on almost to the close of his remarkable life at 
ninety-nine. 

Jules Verne was writing romances when past seventy. 

Noah Webster performed the herculean task of his life be- 
tween the ages of sixty and seventy, rearing a monument to 
his own ability, industry and learning. 

Camille Flammarion, the eminent French astronomer, has 
done much of his most valuable work since his fiftieth birth- 
day. 

Examples might be multiplied over and over again to prove 
that maturity may bring life's best expression. The present 
being made up of what has gone before, any of the earlier years 
cannot be given over to habits that destroy without the record 
being left. Unless the quality of a life is good, the greater or 
less length does not signify so much in the social fabric. What- 
ever of good is in the character of people, themselves receive 
the first benefit. Each has his own life to live ; but in order to 
be a vitalizing element the power within one's self for the ex- 
pression of the universal life must be recognized. William 
Penn said : "He that does good for good's sake, seeks neither 
praise nor reward, is sure of both at last." 

The Fountain of Youth* 

And as to the fountain of youth, which also is the source of 
strength and power to do, one writer says: "The fountain, 
which began flowing when God said, 'Let there be light,' is 
still flowing— has ever been flowing and will always flow. 
Indeed, the signs are not lacking that it is flowing more freely 
than ever before. The increase of flow results from the fact 
that more of us are willing to drink. In vital matters supply 
is always infinite ; but apportionments are always in ratio with 



214 



MATURE LIFE. 



demand. Our banker never forces money on us; we have to 
check against our deposits." 

So, in order to receive of our share from the infinite supply 
of all the phases of good we must persistently make demand. 
In the words of Prentice Mulford : ''Mind is magnetic because 
it attracts to itself whatever thought it fixes itself upon, or 
whatever it opens itself to. Allow yourself to fear, and you 
fear more and more. Cease to resist the tendency to fear, 
make no effort to forget fear, and you open the door and in- 
vite fear in; you then demand fear. Set your mind on the 
thought of courage, see yourself in mind or imagination as 
courageous, and you will become courageous. You demand 
courage. 

''Ask and Ye Shall Receive*'^ 

'There is no limit in unseen nature to the supply of these 
spiritual frailties. In the words 'Ask and ye shall receive,' 
the Christ implied that any mind could through demanding 
draw to itself all that it needed of any quality. Demand wisely 
and we draw to us the best. 

"Every second of wise demand brings an increase of power. 
Such increase is never lost lo us. This is an effort for lasting 
gain that we can use at any time. What all of us want is 
more power to work results and build up our fortunes — power 
to make things about us more comfortable to ourselves and 
our friends. We cannot feed others if we have no power to 
keep starvation from ourselves. Power to do this is a differ- 
ent thing from the power to hold in memory other people's 
opinions. * * * 

"Your plan, purpose or design, whether relating to a busi- 
ness or an invention, is the real construction of unseen thought- 
element. Such thought-structure is also a magnet. It com- 
mences to draw aiding forces to it as soon as made. Persist 



MATURE LIFE. 215 

in holding to your plan or purpose, and these forces come 
nearer, become stronger and stronger, and will bring more and 
more favorable results. 

"Abandon your purpose, and you stop further approach of 
these forces, and destroy also such amount of unseen attracting 
power as you may have built up. Success in any business de- 
pends on the application of this law." 

This being a law-governed universe, everything successful 
is in accordance w^ith law : everything non-successful when the 
law is not conformed to. Each must develop hf^ own powers 
of understanding, and when he does so will give some indi- 
vidual interpretation of life. *'Law is diversity in unity, and 
man in expressing it is the same." 

A writer in Unity gives the following words of helpfulness 
for gaining what is our own for the claiming : ''Our recogni- 
tion of the vitality of all things about us gives vitality to all 
our environment as well as to the physical condition of the in- 
dividual. It gives poise to the individual, a feeHng of strength 
and confidence in his ability to think and to do ; his fears leave 
him one by one, for they cannot stand in the face of this great 
vitality. All good is for him. He has only to reach out and 
take what he wants. He must trust his real desire for perfec- 
tion and harmony within and without, must make for it, pass- 
ing by all contradictions to this truth that would beset his path 
and at times seem to obstruct it wholly. 

"Don't listen to any negative voice. Truth is not in nega- 
tions. Truth is in the positives that make for and proclaim 
health, opulence, all good and nothing else* In a strong posi- 
tive attitude there is no room for negations ; only as the strong 
attitude is abandoned do the negatives edge their way in." 

A lesson that cannot be learned too early nor too late is that 
of making one's own life the very best possible according to the 



216 MATURE LIFE. 

knowledge possessed. When each is strong within there will 
be no need of outside protective measures against temptations. 
Virtue does not exist because of no chance to manifest in 
vice. 

Always Look Forward* 

There is also this : no beautiful minute should ever be spent 
in regret. If mistakes have been made, they may be utilized 
as stepping-stones to better experiences. Always look forward 
to the splendid possibilities of the future, working patiently 
with the material at hand, until better appears. Because one 
has reached the age of forty or fifty or more, is no excuse for 
ceasing to be active in all ways. It is not for nothing we are 
here; nothing is causeless or purposeless. Would you ap- 
proach happiness, follow Nature's example of activity; thereby 
working with her beneficent laws. "When one generation 
comes into possession of the material good that the former 
generation has gained and makes that fool remark, *I don't 
have to work,' it straightway is stepping on the chute that 
gives it a slide to Avernus." Success in any line is to the active, 
who concentrate their thought-force to a given end. Success 
is a desirable end through desire to serve, and when one fails 
to attain to it the fault can only be measured and understood 
through the knowledge of personal responsibility. 

Brother Hubbard, of The Philistine, tells us — and he is one 
of the prophets of Truth : "Man never plots another's undo- 
ing except upon the stage. Because you do not like a man is 
no reason he is your enemy — this is a busy world and no one 
really has time to sit right down and hate you. The only 
enemies we have are those we conjure forth from our inner 
consciousness." 



PART ni. 



NEW TOCOLOGY 



THE PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE OF THE 
SEXUAL ORGANIZATION. 



" Man and woman created He them, Male and female created 
he them," 



217 



PART IIL 



CHAPTER I. 




Menstruatioiu 

MNES vivum ex ova. (Every living thing comes 
from an Qgg or germ.) 

Every organism throughout nature is endowed 
with means for perpetuating its kind. The human 
family depends upon a union of male and female of its kind for 
perpetuation, and each sex is furnished a delicate sexual sys- 
tem for the purpose. 

When the system attains the growth for the unfolding 
of sex powers it is known as the dawn of puberty. In girls 
the approach is marked by enlargement of the bust and hips 
and the appearance of a sanguineous discharge known as 
menstruation, the menses, the catamenial How, and various 
other appellations. This indicates that the process of ovula- 
tion, or the formation of ova or female germs, and the dis- 
charge of the same, has begun in the ovaries. 

An eminent authority says that ovulation continues during 
the life of the ovary, although menstruation only attends the 
period of reproductive power. 

At the approach of the menses it may often be noticed that 
girls will manifest many mental peculiarities. The physiologic 
base of menstruation rests in the nervous system; hence the 
establishment of the function, in probably the majority of 

9.19 



220 MENSTRUATION. 

cases, affects th^ nerves and is reflected in the mind. The 
appetite may be irregular, or there may be a craving for in- 
digestibles; languor is felt, the back aches, there are pains in 
the legs; chilliness, headache and many other morbid condi- 
tions are to be seen, while the temper may be very irritable 
or perverse. 

With the establishment of a periodical flow unpleasant 
symptoms vanish, and the young woman enters buoyantly 
upon the current of adolescent life. The quickening influence 
of the power of sex manifests itself in increased activities, 
mental and physical, and in refining the whole nature. This 
latter is only true when the young woman has been shielded 
from grossness regarding sex life, or has been made acquainted 
with its true uses. As yet the latter is the exception rather 
than the rule; mothers largely rely on keeping their darlings 
in ignorance. But the spirit of progress is abroad, and all 
who desire to' keep abreast of the times inform themselves 
more or less as to child-culture, which includes instruction 
on the physiological well-being of the child. 

Before the menstrual flow appears a wise mother will tell 
her daughter that it is to be expected. Oftentimes it is 
learned from classmates or from ignorant older persons, and 
from that girls come to believe it is something to be concealed. 
Not knowing its nature and use, chill is often caused by dab- 
blings in water, and repression of the flow results, which 
paves the way to a future of invalidism ; or, coming upon her 
unawares, fright may affect the budding woman in the same 
way, doing her injury. 

The age of puberty varies according to climate, race, tem- 
perament or general condition of health. 

In the hot zones menstruation occurs from the tenth to the 
fourteenth year ; in temperate zones from the thirteenth to the 



MENSTRUATION. 221 

sixteenth; in colder zones from the fifteenth to the twentieth 
year. The ItaHan, Hebrew, Creole or Negro girl menstruates 
earlier than the English, German or Swedish girl; the full- 
blooded girl earlier than her anaemic cousin. 

In normal health menstruation occurs once in twenty-eight 
days throughout the years of fecundity. There are some 
variations to this rule; some w^omen in sound health have 
menstruated once in twenty-one days; others once in twenty- 
four days. One physician says, ''Each woman is a law unto 
herself" in this respect. 

The source of the menstrual discharge is in the uterus and 
Fallopian tubes, the best authorities testify, and its purpose 
is to prepare the lining membrane of the uterus for the recep- 
tion and gestation of impregnated ovum. While the function 
of menstruation depends on the integrity of ovulation, ovula- 
tion does not depend upon menstruation. In man thousands 
of spermatozoa are created and re-absorbed into the system to 
add to his strength of brain and body, or thrown out of his 
system through evil habits. 

The economy of the female generative system is much the 
same, recent scientific studies assert. "Thousands of ova ma- 
ture, rupture and become absorbed by the peritoneum during 
the intermenstrual phase," one author says. Perverted sexual 
habits or tastes, like poison in the blood, counteract the 
beneficent effects of the natural law which causes the absorp- 
tion of life-germs for the upbuilding of vitality. 

Menstruation influences ovulation from the fact that dur- 
ing the flow the ovaries are highly congested, and thus hasten 
the ripening of the germ-cells near the surface. In absence 
of the ovary, or in defective development, the uterus is almost 
always defective and the flow defective or absent. Removal 



2S2 MENSTRUATION. 

of the ovaries is sooner or later followed by a cessation of 
the menses ; two years is about the limit of continuance. 

A medical journal publishes the following from the pen of 
a progressive practicing physician : "The ovary is the central 
and essential sexual organ of females and should never be 
sacrificed if avoidable. The uterus and oviducts are ap- 
pendages of the ovary. When extirpating ovaries sufficient 
parenchyma (the soft tissue of the glands) should be retained 
to sustain the menstrual process. 

"The ovary is a closed gland, like the spleen, and its secre- 
tion is necessary for the animal economy.'' 

Wives and mothers have been so reduced in mind as to 
gladly undergo the surgery which removes the ovaries, for 
the reason that it would prevent pregnancy and undesired off- 
spring. They do not understand good old Mother Nature. 
Rather they misunderstand in thinking too frequent child- 
bearing is one of her decrees. When seed is planted it will 
endeavor to grow, no matter if the soil be exhausted. The 
parent life will be the stronger if seed-sowing is avoided, 
Mother Nature says. Only uncontrolled abnormal sexual ap- 
petite will generate undesired offspring. 

From general consideration of the menstrual flow it may be 
concluded that menstruation is a nervous phenomenon; that 
it is a reflex act originating in the mechanism of the nervous 
system. But there must be a normal genital apparatus, a 
normal nerve apparatus and a normal blood supply. Tlie 
sympathetic nervous system distributed to the blood vessels, 
the glandular system and the viscera have control of this func- 
tion. 

Menstruation should be devoid of suffering. That it is 
not in so many instances indicates a wandering from the lavii^s 
of health in some direction. None of the phases of disordered 



MENSTRUATION. 233 

menstruation can be overcome without a return to wholesome 

methods of living. 

Vicarious menstruation means that the bloody secretion 
may occur on other mucous membranes than the uterine, as the 
nasal or intestinal. It occurs mainly with defective develop- 
ment of the uterus, or in its absence ; or it may occur in cases 
of menstruation suppressed at its natural source. 

Painful menstruation, called dysmenorrhea, may be due to 
errors in diet, or dress, to exposure, to lack of proper exercise, 
to constipation, or to a contracted . or congested state of the 
Fallopian tubes or mouth of the uterus. The afflicted parts 
once a month telegraph to the brain that some wrong condition 
exists. Menstruation is not the wrong condition, however. 
It is natural and should no more be attended with pain than a 
passage from the bladder or bowel. Almost any condition can 
be easily overcome but that of non-development. Sometimes 
the female organs remain infantile, in which cases the functions 
of nature cannot be performed. Disability is often inherited. 

Degfeneracy^ 

The race of womankind to-day is not as hardy as its grand- 
mothers or great-grandmothers. Why? Perhaps artificiali- 
ties of civilization have much to do with those who have not 
learned that natural laws of being are to be preferred. More 
than twenty-five years ago Gail Hamilton, a woman many 
years ahead of her generation in thought, wrote: 

'Tf the women of to-day are puny, fragile, degenerate, are 
they not the grandchildren of their grandmothers, bearing 
such constitutions as their grandmothers could transmit? It 
was the duty of those venerable ladies not only to be strong 
themselves, but to see to it that their children were strong. 
A sturdy race should leave a sturdy race. It was far more 



224 MENSTRUATION. 

their duty to give to their children vigorous minds, stalv^art 
bodies, healthy nerves, firm principles, than it was to spin and 
weave and make butter and cheese all day. We should have 
got along just as well with less linen laid up in lavender, and 
if our grandmothers could only have waited we would have 
woven them more cloth in a day than their hand-looms would 
turn out in a lifetime. But there is no royal road to a healthy 
manhood and womanhood. Nothing less costly than human 
life goes into the construction of human life. We should 
have more reason to be grateful to our ancestors if they had 
given up their superfluous industries, called off their energy 
from its perishable objects, and let more of their soul and 
strength flow leisurely in to build up the soul and strength 
of the generations that were to come after them. Nobody is 
to blame for being born weak. If this generation of women 
is feeble compared with its hardy and laborious grandmothers 
it is simply because the grandmothers put so much of their 
vitality, their physical nerve and moral fiber into their churn- 
ing and spinning that they had but an insufficient quantity 
left wherewithal to endow their children. And so they 
wrought us evil. 

"One would not willingly quarrel with his grandmothers. 
All agree in awarding them praise for heroic qualities. They 
fought a good fight — perhaps the best they could under the cir- 
cumstances with their light. We would gla-dly overlook all in 
their lives that was defective and fasten our eyes only on that 
which was noble. But when their fault is distinctly pointed 
out as their virtue, when their necessity is exalted into our 
ensample, when their narrowness is held up to our ambition, 
we must say it was fault and need and narrowness, grand- 
mother or no grandmother. Indeed, those excellent gentle- 
women, no doubt, long before this have seen the error of their 



MENSTRUATION. 225 

ways, and if they could find voice would be the first to avow 
that they did set too great store by chests of sheets and bureaus 
of blankets, and pillow-cases of stockings, and stacks of pro- 
visions; and that if it were given them to live life over again 
they would endeavor rather to lay up treasure in the bodies 
and brains and hearts of their children, where moth and mil- 
dew do not corrupt, which time does not dissipate nor destroy, 
and whereof we stand in sorer need than of purple or scarlet 
or fine-twined linen." 

Opportunities are better for mental development now than 
in pioneer times. The light is spreading by means of books 
and from mouth to mouth. But improvement is constant, and 
there should be ambition to keep abreast with the best at all 
times, and especially in regard to the care of the body, which 
may be either the temple or the prison of the soul. 

Remedies for Dysmenorrhea. 

Returning to the subject of dysmenorrhea, the cause should 
be sought. Remove all unhealthy clothing from neck to shoes. 
This change will work wonders. If there is constipation, use a 
copious enema of hot water to the lower bowel two or three 
times a week. If properly used the bowels do not depend on 
the enema for normal action, many physicians to the contrary 
notwithstanding. First flush the bowel to remove what- 
ever effete matter is packing the rectum; that is passed off 
after retaining as long as possible; then the bowel is flushed 
again to its capacity. This removes the waste higher in the 
bowel. Passing that off, a third flushing may be taken; this 
time about four quarts can be contained and held for som.e time 
in a recumbent position. The water can be distinctly noticed to 
pass along the entire length of the colon. No one using this 
treatment as a prophylactic need ever have a fear of that 



226 MENSTRUATION. 

bugaboo, appendicitis. Appendicitis occurs when the colon is 
packed and crowds the poisonous matter into the appendix 
vcrmiformis. I forgot tO' state that_ after using the above 
treatment there is a normal action of the bowels the next day. 

In reference to diet, if the idea of nourishing the body gives 
way to pandering to the palate the appetite will degenerate, so 
that pastries, confections and stimulants are apt to be used in 
excess of nourishing foods. Beans, peas, oats, salmon, eggs, 
beef, all contain plenty of nitrates, or muscle-forming food; 
the same foods, and codfish in addition, contain an abundance 
of phosphates, or food for nerve and brain; butter, rice, cab- 
bage, corn, beans, provide the carbonates or fat-forming foods 
— white bread may be added as a fat-former. 

Mrs. Rorer, an authority on sanitary and other cooking, 
says that eggs and sugar and butter are all good as articles 
of food, but when used together, as they are to make pastries, 
puddings and cakes, are indigestible and unfit for food. It 
should be remembered that it is what is digested that gives 
strength, and not what is placed in the stomach. All else 
clogs and deteriorates the digestive apparatus. Eat slowly. 

A lack of equalization of mental and physical exercise will 
derange the system, and painful menstruation be one of the 
results. Try to preserve an equilibrium. 

Previous to and during menstruation, drink water abundant- 
ly. Water is the most plentiful constituent of the human body^ 
The blood cannot run in good health without it. One author- 
ity asserts that where there is painful menstruation one may 
be doubly assured that there is not enough water taken into the 
system. Unless certain of its purity, water should be boiled 
or filtered before taking large quantities for hygienic purposes. 



MENSTRUATION, 227 

Suppression of the Menses* 

« 

Amenorrhea is retention or suppression of the menses. This 
state is apt to exist in tuberculosis, excessive obesity, and usu- 
ally during gestation and lactation. A flow would be abnor- 
mal in pregnancy, and during the nursing period it would de- 
tract from the richness of the milk. 

Where the nervous system is burdened by superfluous flesh, 
the menstrual rhythm cannot be smooth. It depends for its 
integrity upon normal nervous activity. The best remedy for 
obesity is said to be to keep cool day and night ; exercise plenti- 
fully; do not take too much liquid; for food, beef, mutton, 
poultry, game, some kinds of fish, green vegetables (but no 
potatoes), fruits, cheese, and occasionally tea without milk or 
sugar. Eat sparingly and at regular intervals. 

Where there is a tendency to tuberculosis, or consumption, 
deep breathing should be encouraged, and a very nutritious 
diet used. This is a malady only curable by attention to the 
laws of health. 

Suppression of the menses sometimes takes place suddenly 
by exposure, or mental emotions. In which case use the hot- 
sitz bath, and drink freely of hot water ; use the hot enema for 
the lower bowel and vagina, and go to bed. Relief will usually 
follow such treatment if the case is not too aggravated. 

If the flow cannot be induced by one or two repetitions of 
the treatment, discontinue until the next regular period arrives. 
In the meantime every precaution should be used to establish 
normal health. Bathe daily, eat rationally and regularly, exer- 
cise outdoors, use the hot water flushing of the colon twice a 
week, and keep the mind pleasantly occupied. At the approach 
of .the period repeat the hot water treatment. 

Unless there is continuous disturbance do not be uneasy 
about suppression. 



228 MENSTRUATION, 

Excessive Menstruation^ 

Menorrhagia is too profuse a flow, a flow that weakens or 
exhausts. Its cause arises in anything, that produces too great 
a determination of the blood to the generative system, or in 
debihty arising from any cause. Shocks, violent exercise, in- 
juries, difficult labor, too frequent intercourse are among im- 
mediate causes. The excessive flow may occur in the usual 
time of menstrual discharge, or there may be a slighter dis- 
charge occurring as often as two or three times in a month. 

The normal. discharge lasts from two to six days, amounting 
to from four to eight ounces. What might be an excessive flow 
in one woman would be but normal in another; temperament 
largely determines the quantity. 

Some of the symptoms of this derangement are shortness of 
breath, great lassitude, faintness, dizziness, headache, leucor- 
r.hea between periods, irritable nerves. The general health 
soon yields to the waste, and one becomes an invalid or sacri- 
fices her life. 

In treatment for cure, the cause must be ascertained and 
removed. This is the first thing to be persistently considered 
in chronic diseases. Palliative measures are, of course, taken 
for immediate relief. Foi^ menorrhagia, the temperament must 
be taken into consideration. The woman of feeble constitu- 
tion must be given every opportunity to gain strength. Con- 
genial surroundings, with all sanitary precautions, come among 
the first. Pure air, pure water, pure food of the most nourish- 
ing character ; gentle exercise, clothing comfortable, with spe- 
cial attention to the extremities: these are curative agencies 
necessary to recovery of health. The massage is also valuable 
in that it equalizes circulation, and stimulates both muscular 
and nervous system. Perhaps the simplest manner to admin- 
ister is by means of the massage roller, which consists of a 



MENSTRUATION,' 229 

series of wheels each turning separately. Each wheel is about 
an inch and a half in diameter, on a flexible axle and set in a 
polished handle. The rollers are made in various sizes. These 
are also useful for the plethoric woman in reducing her size and 
weight. 

For excessive flowing in the full-blooded woman over- 
nourishment and overstimulation should be avoided. In both 
temperaments the bowels should be kept freely open. 

Irregularities in menstruating are usually due to ovarian 
disorders. As before remarked, integrity of the menses de- 
pends on ovulation. Ovarian disease, of course, interferes 
with the process of ovulation. 

It sometimes occurs at the dawn of puberty that the girl 
has all the symptoms of the menses except the discharge. This 
will be found to be due to an imperforate hymen, which is 
of rare occurrence. The following case, related by Dr. Crowe 
in the Medical Brief, illustrates the case : 

"Miss N , aged sixteen, had been under treatment for a 

year. Her doctor left the city to be gone for some time, and 
I was called to see her. On my arrival I found her suffering 
with intense pain in the hypograstic region (lower part of 
the abdomen). She was almost exhausted. She stated that 
she had been having such attacks every three to five weeks 
in three years, but that the pain got harder and lasted longer 
every month. She had all the symptoms of inflammation 
but the sanguineous flow. Her general health was consider- 
ably impaired, appetite poor, nausea, bowels constipated, con- 
stant headache, face covered with eruptions. She said she had 
never menstruated. I at once suspected imperforate hymen. 
* * * Upon examination I found the abdomen somewhat 
enlarged; the uterus was about the size of a cocoanut, hard 
and firm ; the hymeneal membrane had protruded between the 



230 



MENSTRUATION, 



labia; the perineum was bulged out and looked as if the head 
of a child at full turn was about to be expelled. The lower 
extremities were considerably drop&ical. I punctured the 
hymeneal membrane, permitting a stream of blood the size of 
a knitting needle to flow. I placed clean napkins to the vulva, 
and ordered them changed every three hours until I returned 
next day. I saw her twenty-four hours later. Found her 
quiet, with no pain. During the night they had failed to at- 
tend to the napkins, and her bed and clothing were saturated 
with blood. The uterus was reduced in size. I had the ex- 
ternal genitals cleansed and then made a complete incision 
of the hymeneal membrane, letting out the contents of the 
vagina. I gave her a vaginal douche, put a strip of iodoform 
gauze between the cut edges of the membrane to prevent re- 
adhesion. I then placed a pad of gauze to the vulva, held in 
place by a T bandage, and placed her in a clean bed. 

"When I saw her next day she wanted to get up. I gave 
her another vaginal douche and directed her to keep small 
pieces of the gauze between the labia to prevent adhesion. 
Next day*she got up, and since that time has been attending 
to household duties. Her face has become smooth, no eruption 
to be seen ; she has since been menstruating without pain every 
twenty-eight days." 

Cleanliness must be observed in regard to the external geni- 
tals. A vaginal douche of lepid water is excellent in connec- 
tion with the daily bath. During the discharge the napkins 
should be changed at least every morning upon dressing and 
at night upon retiring. Absorption of the disorganizing blood 
is not wholesome, of course, and that is what occurs if nap-, 
kins are worn too long because they are not much stained. 

Relative to cleanliness of the private parts, Dr. Foote says : 
"Some pkysiological lecturers and writers have said that the 



MENSTRUATION, S31 

procreative organs have glands which secrete and exude mat- 
ters having a peculiar odor. This is not true. It is true 
that they are liberally supplied with sebaceous glands to moisten 
and lubricate the parts. But these are as pure as the synovial 
fluids which oil the joints. If there are peculiar odors it is 
because the parts have been neglected. The secretion^ 'may 
accumulate and undergo a change — ^become rancid like unsalted 
butter — ^but this is to be charged to uncleanliness rather than 
to sweet old Mother Nature. In many persons one thorough 
ablution of the parts per day will prevent odor; in others two 
may be necessary. But whether two, three or a dozen be re- 
quired, every man and woman, every boy and girl, owe it to 
their self-respect and to those with whom they associate to see 
that every part of the body is as clean as the face."- 



PART III 




CHAPTER 11. 
The Marriage Relation. 

N erratic genius once said, "Any fool can get mar- 
ried, but it takes a man of sense to resist the tempta- 
tion until he can afford such luxuries." Under the 
prevailing conditions of past and present this ex- 
pression is certainly full of truth. A woman in the partner- 
ship of marriage is a consumer, a non-producer, the husband 
working for the home and family. So the illusion 
that a man of family can live as economically as a 
bachelor is but an illusion. The home-maker may have 
had other and more congenial employment, which she dropped 
to assume the unsalaried position of housewife. It will re- 
quire a measureless love to aid almost any pair to adjust them- 
selves successfully to the new conditions of a new home. 

Preparation before assuming the marriage relation will 
enable any two people of average intelligence to forestall error. 
Error as to the meaning of marriage is responsible for the 
largest percentage of failures in this relationship. This error 
more t^an likely has its root in early training as to the func- 
tions of sex. But any whose spiritual consciousness has been 
released from the binding force of inertia are eager and 
anxious to behold the face of Truth in all things; they obey 
the injunction, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you." 

232 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 233 

No person not having experienced marriage can understand 
the possibilities of that estate, even though they read all the 
best that has been written on the subject. It might be likened 
to reading of the glories of sea or mountain. One may be 
uplifted by the reading, but can never have a realizing sense 
of the greatness and grandeur until within their environs. At 
first glimpse the mountain or sea may or may not present a 
lovely appearance; but a close association will develop a deep 
peace and restfulness of spirit by which one may realize the 
harmony which pervades the universe. In the true marriage 
the sense is the same. Marriage is a law of nature, obedience 
to which should bring happiness. The laws of life must 
be understood before obedience can be rendered, however. 
Therefore, seek to know the truth according to most recent 
developments. 

Treating the subject in its highest sense, one writer says : 
**Not only do the parties who enter into partnership have a 
very poor conception, and no experience at all of the conditions 
they agree to fulfill, but a great deal of useful knowledge 
which they ought to have is withheld from them under the 
mistaken idea that all which treats of sex is impure and tends 
to degrade humanity. It is difficult to understand how a 
young girl kept in ignorance and taught to repress as degrad- 
ing all sexual desires can be induced to enter the marriage 
relation. It is not difficult to see that if she does enter it 
under such conditions her prospect of happiness is greatly di- 
minished, and why so many regret the step they have rashly 
taken. 

"Where Igfnorancc is Not Bliss* 

"A proper regard for the married happiness of youths of 
both sexes ought to lead to their being taught : 



234 THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 

"i. That sex force is a natural force as pure and as deserv- 
ing of gratification as any force within us. If society has 
placed it under restraint it is not because its expression is de- 
grading to the human character, but because its uncontrolled 
results are inimical to the advance of civilization. (Inside of 
marriage as well as outside.) 

"2. That all expressions of love are due to the presence 
of sex force. These expressions may be such as may be ac- 
counted most chaste, or they may be coarse and aggressive, 
but the source is the same, and they are all attempts to 
equilibrate the sex force within us. 

"3. That marriage is the legal method for this equilibra- 
tion sanctioned by society, which looks upon it as a sexual con- 
tract, entered upon for the gratification of sexual desires. 

"These are fundamental truths which must be recognized 
and acted upon by all persons entering the marriage relation, 
if they would have a reasonable prospect of living happily in 
their new conditions. 

"Aside from the sexual relation marriage is a union of the 
economical and social resources of the parties concerned, and 
requires for its success many other qualifications, yet these 
conditions are seldom responsible for its failures." 

I do not like the use of the vv^ord "gratification" in the fore- 
going; it suggests the realm of the senses exclusively. But 
from the work quoted the writer fully convinces one that he 
is trying to aid to a clean conception of the forces of sex, and 
does not purvey to the sensualist. 

''Choice for Choice, Passion for Passion*** 

A woman who loves, according to a German philosopher, 
will "not meet the passion of man passively, without intelli- 
gence and without will ; but, in the consciousness of her equal 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION, 



235 



sovereignty and dignity, she ought to demand and exchange 
choice for choice, passion for passion, devotion for devotion, 
adoration for adoration." Such men and such women com- 
mand admiration. To them go hfe's choicest blessings. 

A certain class of husbands are regardful (?) of their 
wives, having much concern as to enforcing motherhood upon 
them. That is, they will endeavor to find out every available 
means to prevent conception or destroy the foetus. In most 
instances the wives accept these conditions as the least of two 
evils. However, they are sometimes awakened to self -con- 
sciousness by waning health. When one of such prays to be 
excused from being a passive participant in her own destruc- 
tion, she is met with the taunt, "You no longer love me.'* 
Love may not have gone at that time, but it cannot be forced 
to remain by sneers and taunts; go it surely will. 

Wives of these coarse men are many times of the tempera- 
ment which craves affection; but they shrink from caressing 
because the spouse demands intercourse as the inevitable re- 
sult. 

"Amativeness,'' says Dr. Foote, "may be employed in de- 
veloping and gratifying naturally the social and affectionate 
instincts ; in imparting to woman the strong magnetism devel- 
oped by man; in modifying the masculine elements of man 
with the spiritual aura of woman; in making both sexes 
healthier and happier. It is an escaped tiger from a menagerie 
when it takes on the spirit of selfishness and seeks the grati- 
fication oi its impulse without regard to the rights and happi- 
ness of others." 

It is at this point women should spur their individuality 
into action and claim possession of their own bodies. Surely 
the body should belong first and foremost to the ego which 
lives therein. In the language of Mrs. Stanton, "Did it 



336 THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 

ever enter into the mind of man that woman too had an 
inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of her individ- 
ual happiness?" 

Helen Gardner, a woman who has done heroic work for 
her sisters, says: "Self-abnegation — subserviency to man — 
whether he be father or husband, is the most dangerous that 
can be taught or forced upon her whose character shall mold 
the next generation. She has no right to transmit a nature 
and a character that is subservient, subject, inefficient, unde- 
veloped ; in short, a slavish character, which is blindly obedient, 
or blindly rebellious, and is, therefore, set, as in a time-lock, 
to prey or be preyed upon by a society in the future." 

There are many shades of belief as to the marriage rela- 
tion, varying from that which obeys every impulse for inter- 
course to that which only holds the relation for procreation. 
For the latter there is much to be said in its favor, when 
husband and wife are in harmony on the subject. They do 
not exhaust their vital powers; they do not thrust life upon 
helpless innocents without fully considering the possibilities 
of good to grow out of the life by them begun. Their babies 
are "desired, designed and loved into existence." Dr. Cow- 
an, in "The Science of a New Life," advocates intercourse 
for procreation only, but he seems not to have understood 
that sexual powers are as clean as we choose to make them ; 
to him all who do not agree as to his idea must necessarily 
be wrong. 

Dianism — The Lovc-Union« 

There is a practice acceptable to many which is called 
Dianism. Married pairs who agree to live according to the 
precepts of Dianism preserve the lover love of courtship in- 
definitely, provided they do not live in different mental at- 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 237 

mospheres. These equilibrate the male and female elements 
by all the pretty and pleasing attentions that lovers use during 
courtship, and in the marital couch embrace each other in 
the state of nudity. The interchange of magnetic elements 
tranquilizes and strengthens each of the participants. 

Says an advocate of Dianism, "As men develop marriage 
is looked upon as something more than a procreation asso- 
ciation." Which saying is true, whether all progressive peo- 
ple are believers in Dianism or not. 

Another practice for equalizing sex force in the marriage 
relation is much the same as Dianism, except that husband 
and wife unite as for intercourse, but agree to what is termed 
a love-union. The exchange is magnetic; in neither is the 
union allowed to culminate in the nervous spasm called the 
orgasm. The union of complementary male and female ele- 
ments is perfect where there is mental as well as magnetic 
harmony. Procreation is entirely controlled by either of the 
above methods. The male impregnating fluid is retained to 
develop man's own organism. Numberless advocates of man's 
physical need to discharge the product of his generative system 
say it is contrary to nature when this product is retained ; or 
that it is disastrous to health. This idea is combatted by 
the best thinkers of both sexes. Those seriously seeking for 
Truth are not going to turn from her when found because she 
may not look as they wish she would. Acton says: "It is 
a generally received idea that semen, after having been se- 
creted, can be reabsorbed into circulation, giving buoyancy to 
the feelings and the manly vigor which characterizes the 
male. * * * jj^ fact who is ignorant that the semen reab- 
sorbed into the animal economy augments in astonishing de- 
gree the corporeal and mental forces ?" 



238 THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 

"Steam is water transmitted into power and motion through 
heat and machinery," says a recent periodical. "Vitahty is 
food transmitted into life through the marvelous mechanism 
of the human body. How it shall manifest itself depends 
upon the will of the individual." The balance wheel of hu- 
man power, lying as it does in the sex-nature, may be set at 
naught very easily by lack of self-control. "By their fruits 
ye shall know them." That which assists individual un- 
f oldment to bless society is good ; vice versa. 

Man's Ungfoverned Passion. 

Outside of marriage a man is punished who forces his 
sexual attentions upon a woman. In what way is wrong 
made into right by the legal form uttered by clergyman or 
judge? Wrong cannot be made into right. "Love work- 
eth no ill to his neighbor." 

Says Dr. Perrin : "If Newton, Kant, Fontanelle and Beet- 
hoven could live their many honored years with no indul- 
gence of passion, surely other men might abstain without 
injury. The ungoverned passion of man is prolific of evil; 
and, like producing like, the father who has never learned 
self-control may give his son not only form and feature, but 
the germ of the same fierce, clamorous desire, which in its 
full development will prove a heritage of woe to that son 
and others. That which polite language veils under the 
designation of social evil, and which desolates so many happy 
homes and brings its quick black harvest of misery, remorse, 
disease and death, chiefly lives because man does not know 
aright, does not duly reverence and honor woman and keep 
in subjection that which may become one of the monster pas- 
sions of his heart." 



n 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 239 

Happy Marriage Affords the Only Security* 

There is no physical craving for sensual gratification in the 
mind that has inherited no taint, any more than there is a 
natural craving for alcoholics. Men and women, both young 
and old, will seek the society of opposites, in accordance with 
nature's law, just as plants turn to the sun. But they will only 
love in physical union when soul meets soul, and mind and 
body harmonize. Marriage is the only estate that finds per- 
fect security for the best development of the two who so 
unite. The blending of sex-force generates health and 
strength, physically, mentally, spiritually. Blessed be happy 
marriage. Therein the true man and woman meet on an 
equal footing and realize the highest form of comradery and 
friendship. 

True happiness depends upon the highest use of faculties 
and privileges. When used in cheap pleasures they deteri- 
orate ; satiety comes in the place of satisfaction. 

Mrs. Burnz tells the story of a young married couple who 
loved each other, but who were ignorant of means to control 
generation. In five years there were four babies who had 
come to them. Then the husband decided that the load of 
care for them both was becoming too heavy, and made up his 
mind to restrain his sexual appetite. He was successful, and 
remained a devoted friend and lover of his wife and a kindly, 
considerate parent to their babies. This is possible and best 
to some, while to others the sexual love-union embraces the 
beauty and pleasures of marriage. The love-union is as dis- 
tinct from the full procreative act as the kiss or caress. "If it 
is noble and beautiful for the betrothed lover to respect the 
law of marriage in the mid^t of the glories of courtship, it 
may be even more noble and beautiful for the wedded lover 



340 THE MARRIAGE RELATION, 

to respect the unwritten laws of health and-propagation in the 
midst of the ecstasies of sexual union/* 

Exchange of magnetic elements rebuilds waning vitality; 
while the full procreation act, which ends with ejaculation of 
the seminal fluid, and a nervous spasm on the part of both par- 
ticipants, offers no compensation to either, except gratification 
of the animal impulse. It is only right when children are 
desired. 

''Opportunity Makes Importunity^'* 

Married people should not occupy the same sleeping-room, 
or if the same room, not the same bed. No two people should 
sleep together. But the custom has prevailed so largely in 
conjugal life, to many people marriage means the legal privi- 
lege of sleeping together. For the control of the procreative 
impulse nothing better aids than separate rooms or separate 
beds. "Opportunity makes importunity," says Dr. William 
Hall. "If married persons slept in different rooms the in- 
dulgence would only be thought of when there existed a nat- 
ural healthy appetite." 

If there is any one thing I would recommend especially 
to young people about to marry it would be not to plan their 
home without single beds for .their own use. This is an im- 
mense step in advance of the past and will be a great aid in 
controlling the marriage relation, to their mutual uplifting 
and profit. Double beds are a relic of a primitive age, and 
should be relegated to the past with other things which the 
present has outgrown. And no matter who else may sleep 
together, husband and wife should not. 



PART III- 




CHAPTER III. 

Conception and Pre-Natal Culture. 

'HE truism, 'To be well born is the right of ever}' 
child," includes many volumes of pregnant truth. 
And the very beginning of it is that conception must 
occur purposely, designedly, the outgrowth of the 
love of parents. 

No woman should allow herself to be made a mother unless 
she chooses maternity; no true man will gratify his animal 
appetite for procreation at another's expense. As before 
mentioned, the function of amativeness is separate from the 
procreative function. The proper use of the sexual organs 
for love's expression raises the marital embrace to a spiritual 
plane where it ceases to be degrading. 

"Evolution means progress," says C. Staniland Wake, "and 
progress implies improvement, without which there could be 
no evolution ; but improvement of the human race will not be 
further possible unless the marriage relation is regarded from 
a higher standpoint than that of sexual indulgence." 

Among many books written to solve the question of un- 
checked procreation, two by George N. Miller stand out bold- 
ly: "The Strike of a Sex" and "Zugassent's Discovery." In 
the former the strike is presumed on account of enforced moth- 
erhood. It is ended by "Zugassent's Discovery," which re- 

241 



U2 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE, 

lieves womankind of the tortures of unwelcome maternity. 
Mrs. Stanton many years ago said: "So long as children 
are conceived in weariness and disgust you must not look 
for high-toned men and women capable of accomplishing any 
great and good achievement." She was a seer — one who 
perceived the germ of true progress. 

**Zog:assent's Discovery/' 

The love-union, called by Miller "Zugascent's Discovery," 
stops short of seminal ejaculation by the husband and short 
of the orgasm by the wife. Arguing for marital self -culture, 
"Zugassent" says: 

"Man's superiority to the brutes is read in his continual 
advance in the conquest of nature. The brutes stand still; 
men reflect, energize and conquer. The seeds of the final 
supremacy over nature lie in the full subjection of man's own 
body to his intelligent will. There are already an abundance 
of familiar facts showing the influence of education and direct 
discipline in developing the powers of the body. We see 
men every day who, by attention and painstaking investiga- 
tion and practice in some mechanical art, have gained power 
over their muscles for certain purposes, which to the mere 
natural man would be impossible or miraculous. In music 
the great violinists and pianists are examples." 

Among the more refined of humankind, sexual communion 
is voluntary; among the uncultured the physical union is 
regarded as a necessity. Contrast the usefulness of the two 
classes. In the kingdom of lower animals all courting has 
for its aim and end procreation; they obey the same instinct 
as when time began. But the undeveloped human does not 
stop with procreation. The act is repeated in season and 
out of season, pregnancy or not. It is marvelous, not that 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 243 

SO many sickly or idiotic babes are born, but that so many 
are born as bright as^ they are. 

It is not an easy work to overcome the prejudice of ages in 
regard to the marriage relation. Only those of progressive 
tendencies will give heed to new ideas. Even with them it 
often requires much time and many volumes to convince. 

The Mind's Power Over the Body« 

Objectors to marital self-control argue that it is against 
nature. They are in error. Self-control works with nature 
to perfect the machinery of the human mind and body. 
What may seem at first impossible is, in reality, only impos- 
sible to those lacking in character. Any of the departments 
of the body are under control of the mind, in a greater or 
less degree. As breathing, for instance. This goes on un- 
consciously, enough to sustain life. But conscious breathing, 
deep and full, increases health, increases the power to resist 
disease. Culture aids in improving nature in every bodily 
function. Nowhere else is improvement more needed than 
that of the sex function. When used especially for physical 
union, sex tends to the animal origin, but when raised above 
the plane of feeling or emotion the whole nature partakes of 
the uplifting. "He is most powerful who has himself in 
power." 

Following are a few extracts from testimonials printed by 
G. N. Miller: 

A Four Years' Honeymoon* 

"For two years after becoming engaged I delayed marriage 
because I did not think my income sufficient to support wife 
and children. Happily for me, a friend wrote me about 
'Zugassent's Discovery.' The ideas contained therein were 
so different from all my preconceived ideas of what consti- 



244 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE, 

tuted marital happiness, I was inclined to reject them as im- 
practical and absurd. But the more I thought of the matter 
the more clearly I saw that if there was a possibility of 
these new ideas being true, they were exactly adapted to a 
man in my circumstances. * * * 'pj^^ wholly new 
thought that retaining the vital force within himself would 
naturally make a man stronger, cleaner and better also seemed 
to me not irrational. * * * j j^j^yg j^^fj g^ continuous 
honeymoon -for four years besides having the daily benefit of 
my wife's invaluable help in our business. * * * in the 
light of my own experience I regard the idea that the seminal 
fluid is a secretion to be got rid of as being the most per- 
nicious and fatal one that can possibly be taught to young 
people." 

— "Since my husband became acquainted with *Zugas- 
senfs Discovery' he has endeared himself to me a hundred- 
fold. * * * His very step sends a thrill through me, 
for I know my beloved will grasp me and clasp me and kiss 
me as only the most enthusiastic lover can. * * * ^^\^ 
it is not alone as a cherishing lover that my husband has be- 
come my crown of happiness. He has grown perceptibly 
nobler in character, in purpose, in strength, in all the qualities 
that make a man Godlike, so that besides a lover I have a 
strong friend and wise counselor." 

— ^"It avoids the opposite evils of asceticism and self-indul- 
gence, and does more than any other single thing to make 
marriage a perpetual courtship. I am a husband of fifteen 
years' standing, and therefore speak of matters that are not 
strange to me." 

— "My age is seventy, and, thanks to 'Zugassent's Dis- 
covery,' my health is good, and I am as vigorous as ever I 
was. My only regret is that I was not informed of it earlier 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 245 

in life. It is not only a splendid sanitary measure, but is the 
promoter of the greatest harmony in domestic life I know. 
* * * While in this practice a new life is not developed, 
both parties experience a renewal of life force which is in 
the highest degree wholesome." 

Reproduction on Incident, Not the End, of Life* 

The bringing into existence of children is not woman's 
business in life, no more than it is man's. Together they 
call a being into life. But to woman has fallen the chief bur- 
den of the care of offspring. Many teachers and preachers 
of the "obsolete and decrepit past" have over and over again 
said that motherhood was the sole object of woman's exist- 
ence, until many y^X believe it. It is like hypnotic sugges- 
tion ; so many have received the idea without question or anal- 
ysis, being perfectly passive subjects. 

The trenchant pen of a modern thinker quite recently gave 
expression to this thought : "There is nothing in the achieve- 
ments of human motherhood to prove that it is for the ad- 
vantage of the race to have women give all their time to it. 
Giving all their time to it does not improve it either in quan- 
tity or quality." 

Motherhood does complete woman's development, but when 
she is made to reproduce, like the cow or female bison, only 
the animal department of her nature is given opportunity. It 
is something to be a complete woman, but it is more to be a 
fully rounded-out human with mind and soul and body per- 
fected equally. Reproduction, for best results for all con- 
cerned, should be an incident and not the aim and end of life. 

The Desirability of Offspring;, 

Having said so much as to controlling procreation, the 
desirability of offspring is well worth consideration. 



246 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

In men and women of natural development parental love 
is an instinct. To many married people children come only 
as consequences of the sexual relation, are merely to be dealt 
with at the least possible inconvenience to themselves. But these 
are not the parents through whom the race improves. Ma- 
terial for proper parentage is rarely found in social extremes. 
Poverty too often closes the avenues of insight, or callouses 
the germs of good that they cannot grow; while in the ma- 
jority of extremely rich, the pursuit of entertainment, dress, 
frivolities draw them away from the better things. 

"Fra Elbertus" says: "The rich are not the leisure class; 
and they need education no less than the poor. 'Lord, en- 
lighten thou the rich,' should be the prayer of every one who 
works for progress. *Give clearness to their mental percep- 
tions; awaken in them the receptive spirit; soften their cal- 
lous hearts and arouse their powers of reason.' Danger lies 
in their folly, not in their wisdom; their weakness is to be 
feared, not their strength." To the which we add "Amen." 

The wealthy have the power to aid their opposites, the 
poverty-oppressed. Who will approach conservatism from 
within and arouse its latent energies for good ? 

But wherever true enlightenment exists, poverty and wealth 
are equally powerless against parental love. There may be 
special reasons why there should be no reproduction; health 
may not be such as to justify it; the family resources may 
be too limited, etc. However, instead of lavishing their en- 
tire affections upon a cat or lap-dog, they can give of their 
best to the unloved children of the world, who are many. 

"Love somebody. Help somebody. Lift up somebody. 
Bless somebody. This is the divine law. 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 247 
The Blessfngf of Unselfishness* 

"Live not unto yourself alone. Forget your selfish schemes. 
Get out of the narrow shell of your egotism. Brighten the 
lives of those around you. Make the cup of life sweeter for 
some other of God's children." Thus admonishes one of 
our modern prophets. Many childless people shrivel up 
within themselves, though, indeed, many parents ask only 
for Heaven's blessings on "me and my wife, my son John 
and his wife. Us four, and no more." 

For the generation of another being male and female ele- 
ments are necessary. Woman and man are equally human, 
equally responsible in the begetting of another life. 

"It is a far more awful thing to give than to take life," 
Helen Gardner says. "In the one case you invade personal 
liberty and put a stop to an existence more or less valuable and 
happy. In the other case in giving life you invade the liberty 
of infinite oblivion and thrust into an inhospitable world 
another human entity to struggle, to sink, to swim, to suffer or 
to enjoy; whether one or the other no mortal knows, but surely 
knows it must contend not only with its environment, but 
with heredity — with itself." These things the selfish •will 
reproduce oftener than they who would only endow their 
progeny with what is best. But, as another writer asserts, 
"One good man like George Washington, Peter Cooper or 
Dean Stanley is worth to the world many hundred ordinary 
people." 

"What is Required to Have Well-Born Offspring:* 

The requisites for having a well-born child are so simple 
no persons who really desire to be parents of such offspring 
need to fail in the attempt. The child must be "desired, de- 
signed and loved into existence," as the first requisite. If any 



248 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE, 

special endowment for usefulness is desired the minds of both 
parents should, before conception, be filled with thoughts 
concerning the same. Any specialized art or industry may 
be chosen. Whatever is best concerning that branch should 
be read and talked about for some time previous to the act 
which calls the beloved one into life. Those who do not 
practice the full propagative act at all times do not need to 
be cautioned to refrain from it for at least two weeks prior 
to conception. 

Menstruation is a special preparation of the lining mem- 
brane of the uterus for reception of impregnated ovum. Hence 
to be most in accord with natural conditions, impregnation 
should occur soon after the menstrual flow. In normal woman 
creative life speaks loudest soon after the menses. 

The child's character is influenced very largely by the mo- 
ment of conception, and to become endowed with the best 
qualities of each parent, morning, when mind and body have 
been refreshed by rest, should be chosen as the time for launch- 
ing a new life. 

After this the most susceptible time in human development 
exists for nine months. They should be loving, beautiful, 
joyful, harmonious months. 

The Process of Sexual Generotiom 

Prof. Haeckel, the scientist, tells us that "The process of 
fertilization in sexual generation depends essentially on the 
fact that two dissimilar cells meet and blend. * * * Jt con- 
sists merely in the fact that the male sperm-cell coalesces 
with the female egg-cell. Owing to its sinuous movements 
the very mobile sperm-cell finds its way to the female egg- 
cell, penetrates the membrane of the latter by a perforating 
motion and coalesces with its cell material." 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 249 

The female germ is larger than the male germ, but fewer 
are produced. The ovum is calculated to vary from one-one- 
hundred-twentieth (1-120) of an inch in diameter to one one- 
hundred-fortieth (1-140) of an inch; while the spermatozoon 
is about one six-hundredth (1-600) of an inch in length. The 
ovum is composed of the life-germ, and material to support 
life for a few days after impregnation. It has two membranes, 
the ammion and the chorion. The spermatozoon, under the 
microscope, is shown to have a head, and a thread-like append- 
age, or tail. These cells are produced in enormous numbers. 
Every ejaculation of semen contains some millions of them. 
Observation has shown the spermatozoa to differ in power 
of movement and perfection of development. In proportion 
to their size the journey through the mouth of the uterus 
to find the ovum is a long one, and only the most vigorous are 
capable of making it. The spermatozoa do not have power 
of movement until other secretions are added, as when ejac- 
ulated : within the testicle the seed is jelly-like, and seems 
to consist of bundles of fibers ; when the fibers are separated as 
they are in passing to the seminal vesicles, the shape of the 
spermatozoon may be seen. In the procreative act in com- 
plete union the mouth of the womb meets the head of the 
penis and the semen is thrown directly into the uterus. But 
even where the wife is a passive participant, and the seed is 
left in the vagina, the spermatozoa may live for hours or even 
days, and find their way within the uterus. They are assisted 
by the ciliated epithelium lining the cervix, or neck of the 
womb, the microscopic cilia which vibrate toward the interior 
aiding their progress. 

As soon as conception takes place a new life is begim. From 



250 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

that time parents should strive to make the best possible con- 
ditions for the child. 

For nine months the mother carries the new being within 
her own body. During this time, it is both her duty and 
that of the child's father to do all in their power that the 
child may be a wholesome, well-developed specimen of its 
species. 

No married couple will desire, design and love a babe into 
existence without the first requisite — good physical health, 
They can transmit only what they possess. Mr. Grant Allen 
said: "To prepare ourselves for the duties of paternity and 
maternity by making ourselves as vigorous and healthful as 
we can be is a duty we owe to children unborn and to one 
another." 

The Period of Pregnoncy* 

Throughout the period of pregnancy the prospective moth- 
er should exercise daily with the view to strengthening the 
back and limbs, but neither at gymnastics nor manual labor 
should she exhaust herself, or the child would be lacking in 
vitality. Where a woman does her own housework, during 
the last few months it is always well to hire a maid-of-all- 
work to share the labor and responsibilities while the mother- 
to-be rests and attends to her own and her babe's needs. To 
those to whom this appears impossible it may be added that it 
is economy in the right place. When strength is exhausted in 
pregnancy more will be expended in doctor's bills for mother 
and child than the cost of an assistant five times over. To live 
properly is to obey nature's laws, one of which is, do not ex- 
ercise to exhaustion. This is imperative in pregnancy. On 
the other hand, a life of inactivity is worse; the muscles get 
flabby and all the functions of the body are poorly performed, 
from which both mother and babe suffer. 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 251 

Helpful Physicol Exercise, 

A simple, restful, helpful exercise is that of lying flat upon 
the back, and preferably upon the flooro Inhale through the 
nostrils until no more air can be contained, and then slowly 
exhale until the lungs are deflated. Repeat several times, or 
as often as possible without causing dizziness. Rest passively 
for some moments and then try to assume a sitting posture 
without touching the hands : the back is very much strength- 
ened by such exercise. The muscles of back and abdomen 
are those most needed in parturition, and which when quite 
strong do not cause pain and exhaustion, so cornmonly the 
fate of women. 

An excellent breathing exercise for pregnant women, in 
particular those who customarily wear corsets and tight cloth- 
ing, is this: Stand upright with heels touching and toes 
turned out; place hands on hips, fingers resting on the dia- 
phragm, thumbs on soft part of the back. Inhale slowly 
through the nostrils, deeply, until the hands feel the waist 
expansion. Repeat about five times at first, increasing the 
number of times at each exercise. Conventional dress pre- 
vents this part of the body from developing in size and 
strength. 

Before beginning any exercise the erect position should be 
assumed: Raise the chest, draw in the abdomen, extend the 
joints to their full limits, hold the crown of the head high and 
the chin in. 

The Value of Rest, 

Rest is the natural sequence of exercise. The body has 
best opportunity for preservation when rest and exercise 
equal each other. Exercise in pregnancy enough to become 
agreeably weary, and then rest. Rest often means a change 



252 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

of occupation. If, after exercise and a bath, the senses do 
not call for sleep, follow some line of study, especially that 
line with which you would wish the babe endowed. This 
should be persistently followed throughout the duration of 
pregnancy, though never to the extent of causing brain-weari- 
ness. Idleness will result in a dull, inactive child. Ennui 
should be regarded as a danger-signal. Idleness must not 
have place in the being of one seeking for the heights. In- 
dustry is a lord of nature. One can not go forward and not 
be active. "The work which is performed with pleasure and 
activity of the emotions is retained as a permanent acquisition 
in the development of character." 

There are some whose duties fill all their waking hours, 
and to those especially should come an hour of repose — abso- 
lute rest. "The habit of repose brings capacity fpr presence 
of mind; it brings the mind into condition to act promptly 
in emergencies. To increase and store up power is the am- ^1 
bition of all, but how to accomplish this is a knowledge be- 
longing to few." "Mental stress may be greatly relieved by 
assuming an easy position and thinking only of rest." 

"The very thought of repose brings a feeling of repose. Be- 
lieve you can get rest of mind through rest of body, and you 
can do so. Believe you can have easy mental attitudes through 
easy physical attitudes, and you are in possession of a valuable 
receipt for health and strength." — Dr. Mary R. Melendy. 

When she goes to her room to rest, the housewife should 
loosen every garment that in any way compresses or restricts 
her muscles. She should lie flat upon her couch, or bed, and, 
with the idea of rest uppermost, breathe deeply, calmly. It 
may aid her to repeat the word "rest." Relax, give up all 
other thought but that of rest, calmness, peace, and she will 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 253 

be restored to herself and be of far more service to her family 
than had she kept on and on with the duty which may become 
a grind. 

The Need of Fresh Air* 

Fresh air is of the utmost importance. It is relatively 
more than food and drink to the economy of the body. And 
every mother-to-be should spend as many waking hours as 
possible out of doors, filling her lungs with the good air of 
heaven. One authority says : "Four or five hours of out-door 
breathing, daily, is the very least compatible with health for 
adults." There is vitality and strength to be gained from out- 
door exercise that cannot be gained in an equal proportion 
by any of the very best indoor arrangements. Contact with 
Mother Earth conveys away any superfluous bodily electricity 
that might otherwise make one "nervous." 

Dress During; Pregfnoncy* 

The dress of a pregnant woman should be light and com- 
fortable. There must be absolutely no compression through 
the vital regions; none, in fact, anywhere on the body. It 
has been plentifully demonstrated that woman's dress may be 
both artistic and hygienic; that it may even follow lines of 
conventional suggestion and yet be healthful. But the preg- 
nant woman has all the reasons for assuming flowing robes; 
she dare not, in justice to herself and babe, try to bind herself 
into the skin-tight bodice of the fashion-plate dress. 

The union undergarment, the comfortable bust supporter, to 
which may be attached hose supporters and a skirt, are the 
only undergarments needed. The outside garment may be a 
pretty Empire dress, or a tea jacket with a skirt attached to 
the bust-supporter. The dress for street wear can be made 
with an Eton or Blazer jacket, and skirt built upon the gown 



254 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

form. The form may be made adjustable as to darts, and 
trimmed in front of waist to correspond to a shirt-waist front ; 
the fastening is in the back and concealed by the jacket. Anj 
kind of desirable neckwear may be worn. There are several 
bust supporters on the market any of which may be secured 
for the cost of an ordinary corset. And the comfort and sat- 
isfaction from wearing them is many hundred per cent over 
the barbarous corset and conventional dress. 

Neither deep breathing nor helpful exercise can be practiced 
unless the dress is such as not to restrict. Neither can the 
functions of the body be well performed unless dress is in har- 
mony therewith. A writer on dress in the Gentlewoman says : 
"We are restless and feverish because we do not give our en- 
ergies to the most important things, which a greater simplicity 
in material directions would allow us to do. Therefore to 
occupy our improperly neglected energies we continually make 
variety in unimportant matters. 

"However, what if we become convinced that simplicity was, 
after all, the greatest beauty? As it is, have you never no- 
ticed that beautiful people, or people of impressive personality, 
as a rule wear no odds and ends — fripperies and multitudinous 
trimmings, danglings and janglings? The first, from some 
instinct that they need no enhancements; the second, because 
their attention is given to more momentous things that put at 
once all petty ones out of accord with their feelings, also their 
notice." 

The idea of the article is to consider and separate the essen- 
tials from the non-essentials. Immaculate simplicity as to 
home or person appeals most for the respect of those whose 
respect is worth while. 



I 
I 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 255 
Diet During: Pregfnoncy* 

Diet is very important in pregnancy. Its purity and whole- 
someness are items of consequence at all times, but at this 
time such food as is heating to the blood, or rich in bone- 
forming material, should be avoided. For the former, eat of 
fruits plentifully. If this suggestion is observed, with others 
of hygienic value herein noted, there will be no danger of 
that scourge, child-bed fever. Select such fruits as are agree- 
able to the palate and eat freely of the same at the beginning 
of each meal. 

The nausea, which is the horror of so many women, known 
as morning sickness, is often overcome by the fruit diet. A 
chief source of nausea is intercourse during pregnancy. If 
nausea persists, and intercourse is a habit, it should certainly 
be discontinued, though it may be said that morning sickness 
is one of the least of ills resulting from the marital practice 
of copulation during pregnancy. 

Women inclined to obesity should particularly avoid eating 
too much. The old saying that a pregnant woman eats for 
two is done threadbare. It is true that another occupies her 
body with her; but when it is remembered that the average 
babe only weighs about seven pounds and has nine months in 
which to grow to that size, it will be seen that double eating 
is not necessary, even in the case of the thin woman. One 
does not want a large, fat baby so much as a healthy, well- 
formed one. Overeating will bring on digestive derange- 
ment in the majority of cases, and any disease must be guarded 
against. Eat only enough to satisfy hunger; do not force the 
appetite if not hungry, and do restrain any tendency to over- 
eating, which easily may be made a habit. Large babies are 
hard to be delivered of. It is often necessary to separate the 
parts of the child's body and bring it lifeless into the world, 



256 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

to save its mother, which cases are due to the "eating for 
two" theory. Where the mother is stout, labor is usually 
difficult, and many times the tedious 4abor destroys the baby's 
life. These things are too serious to be the result of careless- 
ness during pregnancy ; the appetites should be restrained from 
unnatural development for sake of the babe's character-build- 
ing as well as his physical good. Pre-natal influence shapes 
the future individual. All that education and environment 
can do after birth is to make the individual a good, bad or in- 
different specimen of the kind decided by heredity and pre- 
natal influences. 

There sometimes exist peculiar cravings for stimulants or 
condiments or certain articles of food, which may in a lim- 
ited degree be gratified, else the mind dwelling often on the 
subject may imprint the craving on the child. Any woman 
who knows the first principles of hygiene knows that coffee, 
tea and alcoholics are not food ; they are but stimulants to spur 
bodily or mental powers to greater exertion; when reaction 
comes exhaustion is much greater than otherwise. The habit 
of using stimulants for years undermines even a strong con- 
stitution, and when the weakness is felt it is attributed to 
advancing years instead of to bad habits. 

Do not give too much consideration to what is to go into 
the stomach. It is good for neither mother nor babe. Fill 
the mind with wholesome, uplifting thoughts for others, and 
the child will reward you a thousandfold in his regard for 
others than self. 

Bothing: During: Pregfnancy^ 

Bathing is to be religiously observed at this time. In 
forming a body for the new being more secretions are thrown 
out of the system and need to be removed. The bath is a 
tonic, too, especially valuable. 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 357 

There should be a sponge bath upon arising in the morning, 
having care that the temperature of the room is warm enough. 
Cold water is best ; if the room is warm a good reaction comes 
on at once, in normal health, and the tonic effect is in the 
reaction. 

During the last months there should be, in addition to the 
sponge, a sitz-bath daily. This consists in bathing the hips 
and abdomen only, sitting in any vessel of suitable size. The 
water at first may be tepid, and the temperature gradually 
lowered to about 60 degrees F. Any feverishness of that 
part of the body is allayed thereby. After remaining in the 
bath for five to fifteen minutes, dry the body and rub briskly 
with the hand for some minutes. 

It is always well to arrange for this bath at a time when it 
is convenient to follow it with a sleep. Bathing naturally 
puts one on better terms with her conscience, and in the pros- 
pective mother creates a love of cleanliness in the child. 

In connection with the sitz-bath it is recommended that oil 
of some kind be well rubbed into the abdomen. A corre- 
spondent of the Journal of Medicine says: "Use either 
sweet oil, cocoanut oil, vaseline, or the old-fashioned goose 
oil. This diminishes much of the feeling of tightness caused 
by the pressure, and prevents the formation of those stricB 
found upon the abdomen of most multipara, caused by atrophic 
condition of the skin layers and obliteration of the lymph 
spaces. By this treatment the skin is made so elastic, and the 
circulation through it so improved, these atrophic changes do 
not take place." 

The same physician recommends that the perineum, the 
space between the anus and vaginal opening, partake of the 
treatment. 'T also urge that the perineum be thoroughly 
oiled and stretched each day. Our patients derive a double 



258 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

benefit from this care ; the long delay of the head at the outlet 
is avoided and many times we are able to deliver a primipara 
of a large child, as was illustrated a Jew weeks ago by Mrs. 

A . When she had called she said her mother and all 

her relatives had had a *hard time.' I gave careful directions 
about the oil, and she was very thorough in its use. When she 
came to be confined I found a large child and a face presenta- 
tion, and although labor was slow, there was not a nick in the 
perineum." 

Lacerations of the perineum usually occur with the first- 
born, and pave the way for uterine displacements. 

Hardly less important than the external bath is the internal 
bath, which consists of washing away the refuse from the 
colon, or large intestine. In a state of nature mankind does 
not bathe for health. Sometimes both sexes swim for love 
of movement and the glow it gives, while knowing nothing of 
advantages to health. Of course they know nothing of internal 
cleanliness. 

The Internol Both* 

Civilized man has prepared plentifully, oftentimes elab- 
orately, for bathing the external surface, but is inclined to 
consider as wwnatural the suggestion of regular internal cleans- 
ing. Taking an injection has been some years in common 
use to wash away refuse from the rectum, which is but the 
last end of the colon. For this just a little water is used. It 
does not overcome the tendency to constipation, and the full 
internal bath does. 

We are not living near enough to the state of nature that 
the sewer system of the body can be ignored. Just as the 
waste pipes of the water system of a city should be flushed, 
cleansed and disinfected, those of the human svstem should be 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 259 

treated. These cleanings can be administered by the bulb 
syringe, or better, by the fountain syringe. And there is a 
specially constructed syringe called the '^Cascade," intended 
especially for cleansing the colon. 

In pregnancy the bowels should never be allowed to be- 
come clogged. In addition to being a general bad condition, 
the colon packed with refuse matter may, by pressure on the 
uterus, cause other morbid symptoms. 

Chorocter in Embryo. 

The social, intellectual and spiritual character of a human 
being may be molded in embryo by pre-natal influence. Dr. 
Holbrook says : 'Tt is essential, therefore, if children are 
to be well-born, that parents should be careful that at the mo- 
ment of procreation they are fitted for the performance of 
so serious an act." Passing the moment of conception, other 
molding influences begin, but if a child is already begotten 
by, say, a passive, submissive mother and a drunken, sensual 
father, a bad beginning is already made, which no good in- 
fluences can wholly eradicate. 

Any one who has seen shy, self-distrustful children may 
well conclude that the mother was one of those foolish ones 
who "went and hid herself" while in the family way. This 
conventional shyness is an injustice to the babe as well ai 
to the mother. She should then as always mingle in the so- 
ciety of congenial friends for the cheering effect on both her- 
self and the child. Alone too much, she will be prone to be- 
come morbid and think of self, and give to her babe a lonely, 
selfish disposition. 

The business of housewifery isolates one more or less from 
the world of general activity. Treading too exclusively in one 



260 CONCEPTION 'AVD FRn-NAlA'C CULTURE. 

way causes a groove or rut to form, which may, after a time, 
get too deep to see over. Isolation has a tendency to cause 
i4nhealthy mental and spiritual conditions; to make one's 
view of life narrow to the four walls of home. 

Good books and periodicals largely overcome this tendency, 
but to maintain truly human feeling it is necessary to rub 
elbows with others of our species. 

Pregnancy is a natural and beautiful condition. Of itself 
it is no reason for retiring from active participation in social 
life. Sensible folk do not regard it as a cause for shrinking 
and shyness. 

Love your babe and its father. But this is superfluous ad- 
vice to those who have' "desired, designed and loved" a babe 
into being. The babe is love's precious fruitage. As Mrs. 
Lowell says: 

"In her was mirrored forth 

The love we could not say, 
As on the little dew-drops round 
Shines back the heart of day." 

Pre-Notal Influences. 

Among the social faculties none is stronger than the at- 
traction between the sexes. To be sure that a child will 
consider this attraction from a clean, true standpoint, all 
thoughts and imaginings must be pure. And husband and 
wife, as they value uprightness of character in their future 
child, must avoid sexual excitement; the father because he 
loves both mother and baby; the mother because a precious 
charge is in her keeping. 

Following are quotations from different authors on the sub- 
ject: 

"Every time a husband excites in his wife the sexual pas- 



CONCEFTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 261 

sion, he robs his child of some portion of its vitality and her 
of some of the strength she needs." — Dr. Nicholls. 

"Caresses must be controlled ; they must not be permitted to 
arouse strong personal feelings; their (the parents') thoughts 
should rather be upon their child than upon each other. Above 
all, the generative act should be avoided. To this end husband 
and wife should occupy separate rooms, or at least separate 
beds."— Dr. S. B. Elliott. 

"Copulation after conception is more unnatural, moie bru- 
talizing, both to parents and child, than all other habits and 
causes combined." — Dr. M. R. Melendy. 

All bursts of passion, anger, rebellion, jealousy and tha like 
must be controlled, as being doubly bad in effect. The babe 
in the womb is affected, and the mother by the rebound. "A 
thought for good or evil reaches its destination upon wings, 
and, having performed its mission to others, returns to us by 
the same swift course." — Coming Age. 

"To strive to forget enemies, or to throw out to them only 
friendly thought, is as much an act of self -protection as to 
ward off a physical blow. The persistent thought of friendli- 
ness turns aside ill will and renders it harmless. The injunc- 
tion of Christ to do good to your enemies is founded on 
natural law. It is that the thought or element of good will 
carries the greater power, and will always turn aside and 
prevent injury from the thought of ill will. 

"Demand forgetfulness when it is only possible for you 
to think of a person or thing with the pain that comes of 
grief, anger or any disturbing cause. Demand is a state of 
mind which sets in motion forces to bring you the result de- 
sired. Demand is the scientific basis of prayer." — Prentice 
Mulford. 

Cheerfulness^ happiness, must be the predominating ele- 



262 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

ment. To be happy and make others happy is the highest 
duty and privilege of Hfe. Our loved Louis Stevenson wrote: 

"If I have faltered more or less 
In my great task of happiness; 
If I have moved among my race, 
And shown no glorious morning face; 
If beams from happy human eyes 
Have moved me not ; if morning skies, 
Books, and my food, and summer rain 
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain, 
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take 
And stab my spirit broad awake." 

The "task of happiness" belongs to all human beings, but 
to the mother prospective in especial. And this, like all good 
things, must find its germ within and grow and grow until 
outside influences can not depress or extinguish. 

A NATURAL trend toward intellectual pursuit may be be- 
queathed by general reading and study of the best literature 
within the grasp of the mother's mentality. Any particular 
phase of work having been decided upon for the child will, by 
maternal cultivation, be impressed upon her babe. 

Equilibrium should be sought in all usefulness and indus- 
try. A character one-sided, too highly cultivated in some 
faculties and not at all in others, is one not easy to pilot through 
the world of activity. "The individual grown to fullest estate 
is the one most alive to associations which bring other lives 
into his own." 

Don't try to make your unborn child so much of a genius in 
one thing that he will te withdrawn from his fellow-creatures. 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 263 
The Physicol Signs of Pregfnancy^ 

The physical signs of pregnancy in normal health are: 
First, the cessation of the menses. 

Enlargement of the breasts begins in about six or eight 
weeks after conception. There is usually a noticeable sensa- 
tion of tingling and throbbing, and the enlargement is dis- 
tinguishable from a fatty increase by being hard and knotty; 
the lobules of the glands may be felt beneath the skin, ar- 
ranged regularly around the nipple. 

The areolar tissue surrounding the nipple gradually darkens 
after conception. In the unimpregnated state this tissue is 
pinkish ; as pregnancy progresses the shade grows darker and 
the circle increases in size. However, where one pregnancy 
quickly follows another the dark color becomes permanent 
and is not an indication. Pathological symptoms are always 
more or less present in these cases, and women quickly dis- 
cover their condition by illnesses which come therewith. 

Quickening, or the first conspicuous movements of the babe, 
is noticeable from the fourth month to the fifth. The uterus 
then rises out of the pelvis, and the movements of the babe 
pressing against the sensitive abdominal contents are sensible 
to the mother. 

Enlargement of the abdomen begins about the second month, 
when the uterus elevates the intestines. At the fourth month 
it rises out of the pelvis in the form of a hard round tumor, and 
then gradually enlarges the whole abdomen. It reaches the 
navel at the sixth month and the region of the diaphragm 
at the ninth. 

The Disorders of Pregnancy* 

The disorders of pregnancy are numerous in proportion to 
the state of health and manner of living. Morning sickness 
is often prolonged and aggravating ; it is most common in the 



264 CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

nervous temperament, or in those whose life has been such 
as to create nervousness. This can be overcome along with 
many other unpleasant symptoms by rational living. Eat of 
some fruit that best agrees with palate or stomach, drink hot 
water, or eat nothing until a real hunger demands. Where 
nausea occurs after eating, a tart apple or orange is good. 
Mrs. Duffy recommends the following : 

"Let women suffering from morning sickness try acid fruit 
— apples, oranges, or even lemons, if their sourness is not un- 
pleasant. If a single orange or apple after each meal does not 
suffice let them try two; let them eat ten if that number is 
necessary to conquer the distress. The principle is a correct 
one and the relief certain. Let fruit be eaten at all hours 
of the day — ^before meals and after, on going to bed at night 
and upon getting up in the morning. If berries are in season 
let them be eaten in the natural state — ^that is, without sugar. 
If the sickness still continues omit a meal now and then, and 
substitute fruit in its stead. By persistence in this course, not 
only will nausea be conquered, but an easy confinement guar- 
anteed.'* 

Nervousness,sleeplessness, hysteria are due to want of fresh 
air and outdoor exercise, or to allowing the mind to dwell 
upon abnormal symptoms, to listen, as it were, for every pos- 
sible unpleasant condition. Keep mind and body pleasantly 
occupied, and these conditions can not exist. 

Constipation, diarrhea, or any of the disorders of the in- 
testinal region, will not be of any dangerous duration when the 
internal bath is used. 

Heartburn, acidity of the stomach, colic, waterbrash occur 
when improper diet is used or too much is eaten. Drinking 



CONCEPTION AND PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 265 

hot water before meals is good when the cause is not repeated. 
Fasting is also a good remedy. 

Dizziness, headache, neuralgia are no more liable to occur 
in pregnancy than at any other time in normal health. The 
fruit diet is a preventive of that thickness of the blood which 
causes dizziness. Headache due to biliousness may be overcome 
by cleansing the digestive tract and eating lightly for some 
days after. 

Neuralgia is most quickly relieved by bringing the blood 
to the surface. An internal bath, with a vapor or hot air 
bath, will almost surely bring relief from neuralgia. 

The duration of pregnancy is about forty weeks. When 
the date of conception is known the reckoning is from that 
time ; when not, the calculation may be from the time of the 
last monthly period. If this can not be remembered, four 
months and a half from the time of quickening must be made 
use of. 



PART IIL 



CHAPTER IV. 




Child -Birth. 

'HE earliest symptom that the time of parturition 
is near is the descent of the child into the pelvis, 
when it has before been near the diaphragm. A pos- 
itive feeling of relief is experienced, because of the 
increased breathing capacity. This state may exist for 
several days previous to labor — though often it is of only 
a few hours* duration. A slight discharge of mucus tinged 
with blood occurs, which indicates that the uterus is getting 
ready for the discharge of its contents ; this is called "the show" 
by doctors and midwives; os uteri is becoming unsealed. 

When these indications occur the lady should lose no time 
in having the chamber in which she expects to be confined ar- 
ranged. The most light and airy room in the house should, 
when, possible, be made the lying-in room. Good ventilation 
and light are imperative in sickness. The bed should be strong 
and firm to preclude the possibility of being jarred by a 
tumbling down. The mattress may be of any of the good 
makes and protected by a folded comfort, over which is spread 
two yards of rubber cloth. Over the rubber or oilcloth may 
be spread whatever else is desired to make the bed comfortable. 
The doctor will expect to be seated so that the right hand 
may be used to assist the patient when necessary. » 

266 



CHILD-BIRTH. 36^ 

The nurse and physician should be informed at the time 
they are engaged as to when their services will be required, 
that their other engagements may not cover it. 

The doctor, nurse and a lady friend are all that will be 
needed at the time of parturition. If the labor is not tedious 
even their services will not be required for long. 

The child's clothing and that of the mother should be ready 
for the moment they are needed. 

The babe's dresses may be such as the mother's taste may 
provide, with the precaution that the skirts be not long. The 
average babe at birth is about eighteen inches in length. Skirts 
for the new-born should not be made longer than twenty to 
twenty-four inches from neck to hem. The weight of long 
skirts is a hindrance to growth. With skirts of the length 
mentioned no shortening process is needed ; the babe grows 
through them. If the yokes and waists are not too snug 
the only change required in the first dresses is an extension on 
the sleeves. 

As soon as labor is known to have commenced the nurse 
and physician should be notified. At the same time prepare 
an abundance of hot water. As often as every ten or fifteen 
minutes drink hot water, or weak hot tea. Get the sitz-bath 
ready as the pains come on. If the bowels have not been 
moved recently cleanse the colon as thoroughly as possible. 
Then sit down in the bath; increase the temperature of the 
water as it cools. Remain in it as long as possible without 
fatigue. 

A Soothing: Bath» 

This bath is wonderfully soothing. Parturient women, 
even in labor of long duration, have expressed themselves 
as delighted at the soothing effect of the sitz-bath. Usually 



268 CHILD-BIRTH, 

there is the desire to lie down and rest after sitting in the 
hot water. The body is made dry and the patient goes to 
sleep. The bath may be repeated once, sometimes two or three 
times, with the same good results. With the sitz-bath and 
drinking warm infusions the system is relaxed and labor is 
comparatively easy. 

One lady gives her experience as follows : "I was awakened 
from a sound sleep by a premonitory labor pain. Arousing 
my husband, I had him call the nurse, who was in the house 
in anticipation of the event. A sitz-bath was made ready as 
soon as possible. After sitting therein for some time I became 
aware that I must leave for the bed. I had scarcely been 
assisted to dry my body and get to the bed, when a lusty boy 
baby was ushered into the world. All of conscious labor was 
over in an hour and a half with very little pain to me. I 
must add, however, that I had through the whole nine months 
lived as thoroughly a hygienic life as I possibly could." 

Taking the sitz-bath and partaking of warm drinks requires 
more effort on the part of a woman in labor than lying in 
bed being anesthetized by chloroform or ether, but she will 
have a quicker recovery and without any of the drawbacks 
with which narcotics leave one. The hot water relaxes the 
muscles; the anesthetic merely deadens the sensibilities. In 
one case labor is really made easier; in the other it is not. 

The Three Stagfes of Lobon 

Labor has been divided into three stages. In the first the 
uterus alone contracts, and the mouth dilates. In the second 
stage the abdominal muscles assist the uterus in expelling the 
child. In the third stage the placenta and membranes are 
expelled. 



CHILD-BIRTH. 269 

Dr. Nicholls says: 

"Child-birth is a natural process, and however painful or 
complicated or dangerous it may be made by disease, still 
nart:ure must do her work. Our efforts to assist nature, to 
expedite her operations, or to take her own work out of her 
hands, generally end in mischief. The only cases in which 
we are justified in interfering is where her powers are ex- 
hausted, or some malformation or malpresentation renders all 
her efforts unavailing. These are rare accidents and always 
the result of disease; how rare even amid the vices of civili- 
zation is shown by the following statistics : 

"Of twelve thousand six hundred and five (12,605) deliver- 
ies at the Maternity Hospital in Paris, only one hundred and 
seventy-eight (178) required assistance, and instruments were 
used only in thirty-seven (37) cases. Yet we have fashionable 
doctors who give ergot and use the forceps in a large pro- 
portion of the cases to which they are called. The conse- 
quences are prostration, hemorrhage, prolapsus and long-con- 
tinued uterine and general disease." 

A remark very common among semi-invalid women is : "I 
have never been real strong since my first baby was born." 

Continuing, Dr. Nicholls says : "One who is to be a bride and 
who hopes to be a mother should observe all the conditions 
of health; and if suffering from any disease, or in the prac- 
tice of any diseasing habit, she must lose no time in seeking 
reformation and cure. Let her be calm, happy, temperate. 
Let her guard against amative excess ; especially in the honey- 
moon does love run into absorption and exhaustion. Perma- 
nent happiness is sacrificed to a few days of delirious and not 
very satisfactory enjoyment. The tone of the uterine sys- 
tem is relaxed by this excess; the germ is weakened; the 
spermatic fluid is exhausted of its vital qualities, and the result 



270 CHILD-BIRTH, 

is a sickly, nervous pregnancy, a protracted and painful par- 
turition and a sickly, short-lived infant. 

Child-Birth Not Necessarily Painful 

"No natural process is painful. We might as well suppose 
that it would be painful to swallow with a healthy pharynx, 
or to digest with a healthy stomach, as to expel the child with 
a healthy uterus. All the pain and difficulty and danger of 
child-birth is the result of disease." 

Everything needed for the care of mother and babe should 
be at hand when delivery is over. The clean garments for 
both, plenty of soft cloths, sweet oil, soap, towels, arnica, 
safety pins, etc. There should also be a large square of soft 
flannel to wrap the child in as soon as born. 

Avoid having as nurse or friend at this time one who is 
not cheerful and pleasant. The morbid, unhappy person de- 
presses even those who have not such important business at 
hand. Some women enjoy pleasant conversation during 
labor, others prefer quiet. The wishes of the one so vitally 
concerned should be observed. 

The New-Born Babe* 

When the babe is born it must be laid at once where the 
uterine discharges will not endanger its life. After wiping 
the mucus from the mouth and face and seeing that respira- 
tion is established, the child is folded into the soft warm 
flannel prepared for the purpose and laid to one side until 
the pulsation in the cord has ceased, which is in from ten to 
thirty minutes. Then the umbilical cord is tied and severed, 
or the navel dressed without tying, according to the opinion 
of the attending physician. Opinions vary as to tying the 



CHILD-BIRTH, 271 

cord; but as to severing before pulsation has ceased, the best 
authorities are agreed that it should not be done. 

In the quick, natural labor the appetite does not demand any 
food. Where it is prolonged there is sometimes a feeling of 
faintness that craves something to satisfy it. Heavy food 
should not be given. A bowl of gruel, a glass of hot milk 
and water, a light soup or piece of toast will be ample. Na- 
ture is at that time using her forces otherwise, and cannot give 
much to digestion. 

If there is any tendency to flooding, the mother should lie 
flat upon the back, with the head lowered. As soon as pulsa- 
tion has ceased in the umbilical cord, with a sharp pair of 
blunt-pointed scissors the doctor severs it, and either dresses 
the navel himself or passes the child to the nurse to be attended. 

The most advanced practitioners do not allow the child to 
be washed v/ith soap and water at first. Instead, sweet oil, 
lard, vaseline or unsalted butter is used, and the secretions 
wiped away with soft cloths. There should not be much at- 
tempt at dressing at first ; the navel dressing, a little shirt and 
diaper and a night dress will suffice. 

Better yet is to follow the example reported as follows: 
"After birth the child got no bath, no food, no dressing pro- 
cess, but was simply swathed in cotton batting and laid for 
six hours in a padded box-bed, surrounded by bottles of hot 
water, and covered with plenty of soft blankets to sleep and 
get used to his new environment. On the second day we began 
rubbing him daily from head to foot with vaseline. His first 
bath, with a flannel cloth dipped in warm milk diluted with 
soft water and without soap, came when he was a week old, 
and was followed by a thorough vaseline rub. 

''Feeding began with a meal every hour of the twenty-four, 
for the first week. Then night feeding was reduced to tW-Q 



272 CHILD-BIRTH. 

meals, and he was fed every two hours — from four or five 
o'clock in the morning till nine at night — until two months 
old."— Dr. Holbrook, in "Homo-Cukure." 

The Afterbirths 

In natural labor, from a few minutes to an hour elapses be- 
fore the afterbirth and membranes are expelled. Neither the 
doctor nor midwife should pull at the cord. If the uterus is 
not ready to expel the placenta, a pull may displace the organ 
and some permanent injury be done the woman. A forcible 
pulling on the cord has been known to turn the uterus wrong 
side out. 

After the afterbirth is expelled the conscientious physician 
will examine to see if it has been entirely passed away. If not, 
more clots may be expected. 

If it takes longer than an hour for the afterbirth to be ex- 
pelled, the patient should not be allowed to worry. Perhaps 
nature is resting before making another expulsive effort. The 
eminent authority, Playfair, says : "There is no place where 
there is so much malpractice as at the bed of labor, and in the 
detachment of the afterbirth." Both husband and wife should 
hesitate a long time before consenting to extraneous removal 
of the afterbirth. It does not adhere to the womb. For absorp- 
tion of nourishment and aeration of the fetal blood, it is at* 
tached to the mucous lining of the uterus; but in just the way 
that the babe is born when the time is ripe, so the placenta peels 
away from the uterus as an orange is peeled away from the 
rind. 

Those practitioners who sever the cord too soon are the 
ones who have had cases of retained placenta. The premature 
operation interferes with the natural expulsion of the after- 
birth. Obey the laws of nature and all is well. 



CHILD-BIRTH. 273 

Dr. Curtis, in "Midwifery," says: "Never fear to wait for 
[the efforts of nature, aided only by innocent means and pro- 
cesses, to disengage the placenta. Many instances have oc- 
curred in which it has remained not only for hours, but for 
days, and then came away without danger or inconvenience 
to the patient." 

There are so many ways by which a woman may save her- 
self a painful, tedious delivery through care beforehand; the 
wonder is that any will be recklessly careless as to the rules of 
health when it may mean their own or their child's life. 

When the placenta has been expelled the patient may, if not 
too exhausted, be made tidy and comfortable and left to rest. 
The afterbirth should be burned or buried. 

The vagina should be irrigated with warm water in which 
there is a little carbolic acid; and when the parts have been 
cleaned and dried, a napkin wet in a lotion of arnica (twenty 
drops of arnica tincture to a glass of water) should be placed 
against the vulva. 

When the after-pains are severe a napkin wet with the arnica 
lotion as warm as may be borne may be applied to the abdomen, 
with a warm, dry flannel to cover it and prevent the bedding 
and bed-gown from becoming damp. These after-pains are 
but the contractions of an empty uterus, which must return to 
the normal, unimpregnated size. 

For several days after delivery there is a discharge called 
the lochia. The more natural the delivery, the lighter the dis- 
charge. 

The napkins against the vulva should be changed every three 
or four hours during the first two days of convalescence. If 
the soreness continues the arnica lotion should be used each 
time. 

The vagina should be cleaned morning and evening of every 



^274 CHILD-BIRTH. 

day of confinement in bed. Every morning the lady should 
receive a bath and clean garments, and the sheets of her bed be 
changed. If they are not soiled by the discharges, a thorough 
sunning and airing will disinfect them sufficiently for another 
day's wearing. As soon as strength has amply returned, she 
should be helped into a bath at the bedside, having care that 
the room is sufficiently heated to prevent chill. The full bath 
soothes and cleanses better than any that can be given lying 
abed, and it aids recovery more. The third or fourth day is 
the average time for waiting for this bath. 

The bowels and bladder are often in a state of semi-paraly- 
sis after labor. The attending physician will notice those func- 
tions. If there is no action within thirty-six or forty-eight 
hours following labor attention must be given them. A full 
internal bath will ordinarily cure even obstinate cases of re- 
tention. Water, filling the large intestine, is more or less ab- 
sorbed and passed off through the kidneys, washing that excre- 
tory channel as well as that of the colon. 

The Convolcscent Mothen 

The diet for a convalescent woman may be almost anything 
for which she has a liking, with the care not to overeat. 

The babe should be placed to the maternal bosom every 
hour of its waking moments for the first week. The estimated 
capacity of the stomach of a new-born child is a thimbleful ; so 
it can not make use of very much food until growth begins. 
Dr. Louis Starr says : *'As the secretion of milk is never fully 
established until the third day after labor, it stands to reason 
that no food other than the colostrum (the first secretion of 
the mammary glands) is required before that time. Hence 
the practice of filling the infant's stomach with gruel, sugar and 
water and other sweetened mixtures is more than useless, for 



CHILD-BIRTH. 275 

it diminishes the activity of sucking, and the consequent stim- 
ulation of milk production. 

Relative to the nervous sympathy between the uterus and 
mammary glands Dr. Keith says this : "I can not advise too 
strongly of the importance of having the child nurse at once. 
If the afterbirth has not come, nursing favors its coming. 
If there is flooding nursing apparently checks it. But the most 
important point is that the early milk is a physic and cleanses 
the child's bowels in a natural manner." 

The bowels and bladder of the infant should act during the 
first twenty-four hours of separate life. The tarry material 
that collects in the intestinal canal during pre-natal life is called 
the meconium. The napkin of the child should be protected 
against this first passage, as it is not easily washed. An old 
piece of linen may be placed in the napkin, and, after the 
meconium has been passed, be burned. 

The Babels Food* 

It is best not to allow any food to be given the child but its 
mother's milk, but if her health has suffered, and bodily func- 
tions are poorly performed, lactation may not be readily estab- 
lished. If, after the third day, the breasts do not give a plenti- 
ful supply of milk, the feeding may be supplemented with 
cow's milk. Be sure the cow is sound; diseased cattle often 
convey the malady through the milk. The milk should be 
diluted with double its quantity of water and sweetened slightly 
with sugar of milk. The artificial feeding may be done with 
a spoon. It should be discontinued whenever the mother's milk 
begins to flow. 

Many mothers give up the effort of nursing their babes too 
soon. Perseverance is necessary when the child does not readily 
take the nipple. A little milk squeezed from the nipple into His 



276 CHILD-BIRTH, 

mouth will often cause him to seek its source. Dr. Starr says : 
"When giving the breast the infant must be held partly on its 
side, on the right or left arm, according to the gland about to 
be drawn, while the mother must bend her body forward so 
that the nipple may fall easily into the child's mouth, and 
steady the breast with the first and second finger of the disen- 
gaged hand placed above and below the nipple. In case the 
milk runs too freely, a condition very apt to excite vomiting, 
the flow is easily regulated by gentle pressure with the support- 
ing fingers. Each of the breasts should be drawn alternately, 
the contents of one being usually sufBcient for a meal ; and a 
healthy child may be allowed to nurse until satisfied, when he 
will stop of his own accord.'^ 

Regularity in the feeding of infants is more important than 
when they are older. The functions of the delicate little body 
are easily disturbed. It is a very serious mistake to feed a babe 
every time it cries. When the meals have been regulated, 
and the diaper changed whenever necessary, if the babe cries 
it is due to some other cause, which should be discovered. 

It is not desirable that a babe be fat, all former notions to 
the contrary notwithstanding. Mortality is always greatest 
among fat babies. If a child is plump, rosy and frolicsome 
he is well. Too much fat burdens the movements of babe or 
adult, and observation proves that all who are overstocked 
with fatty tissue have not the power to throw off disease. 



PART III 




CHAPER V. 

Hygiene of Infancy. 

^HE period of life known as infancy comprises 
about the first three years of separate existence, or 
until all of the milk-teeth have been cut. 

The earliest infantile needs pertain, for the most 
part, to his physical well-being, although good disci- 
pline and good environment are of no small importance even 
while very young. Regularity in the care of a babe makes an 
early impression. The feeding, bath, and exercise, which should 
occur at stated hours, will be anticipated and called for, and 
this arrangement enables a mother to give a little time to her- 
self and household, and not be in such constant attendance 
upon His Majesty the Baby. 

The Bob/s Bath. 

The daily bath should occur either in the morning or 
evening. Most mothers prefer the mornings ; but regularity is 
the most important item. A good time is between morning 
feedings. 

Supposing the child has awakened at five o'clock a. m. de- 
manding feed, and has been satisfied, he will naturally sleep 
again for two hours, during which time his mother will have 
been attending to morning duties of the house. When the 
second awakening occurs the bath and fresh garments will 
be ready. 

277 



278 * HYGIENE OF INFANCY, 

Water for the bath should be pure and soft to prevent 
jchafing the dehcate skin. It is very convenient to have a low 
stand or stool upon which to rest the bath-pan, to enable the 
bather, while still sitting, to be on a level with her work. Some 
good soap made without potash or other irritating ingredients 
should be at hand, along with a soft flannel for a wash-cloth, 
and some soft towels. 

The water should be about ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit 
in winter, and about ten degrees lower in summer. The bath- 
ing should take place in the part of the room least draughty, 
the room having been heated to a proper temperature before- 
hand. A crib-blanket may be used to wrap about the child 
while drying the body, a portion at a time being uncovered. 
Everything needed for dressing the youngster should be at 
hand; his change of clothing, powder, safety-pins and all. 

In drying the baby, the flesh should be patted rather than 
rubbed. The natural folds of flesh where water may lodge 
require especial attention, or in a very short time excoriations 
will be seen. After drying, the whole body should be gently 
rubbed with the palm of the hand for about five minutes. 
This encourages a good reaction by quickening capillary circu- 
lation. The tonic effects of the bath are in the reaction.. 
Weakly children thrive especially under this gentle manipula- 
tion. Do not dally with the bath. 

Powdered rice is a very good form of powder to use over 
the body should the drying process not be perfect ; but this is 
not essential if drying is well done. 

Whenever the diaper needs changing, the thighs and groins 
should be washed, and dusted with the powder. Any neglect 
in this may cause chafing, which will make the babe fretful 
and unhappy, 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 279 

Whot Bob/s Gying Means. 

Crying is the chief means by which the infant can make 
known any suffering, discomfort or displeasure. In the varia- 
tions of the cry the mother may learn to diagnose the trouble- 
some conditions. 

^'Incessant, unappeasable crying is usually due to earache or 
to hunger; it frequently, too, is caused by the pricking of a 
badly adjusted pin. 

"If crying occur during an attack of coughing, it is an indi- 
cation of some painful affection of the chest; if just before or 
after an evacuation of the bowels, of intestinal pain. 

"When crying has a nasal tone it should suggest swelling of 
the lining membrane of the nose, or other obstructing condi- 
tion. Thickening and indistinctness occur with throat affec- 
tions. 

"A loud, brazen cry is a precursor of spasmodic croup, and 
a faint, whispering cry of true or membranous croup. Hoarse- 
ness points to disease of the lining membrane of the larynx 
either catarrhal or syphilitic in nature. 

"A manifest unwillingness to cry can be seen in pneumonia 
and pleurisy, when the disease is severe enough to interfere 
materially with breathing. 

"Tear-secretion having been established, it is a bad omen 
if the secretion be arrested during the progress of an illness ; 
but it is an equally good one if there be no suppression, or if 
there be a re-establishment after suppression.** — Hygiene oi 
the Nursery. 

The Feeding: of Infonts, 

The feeding of babes is the most important need, if any 
one physical requirement can be singled out. All other organs 
of the body depend upon the digestive apparatus and the lungs. 



280 HYGIENE OF INFANCY, < 

To keep these systems in health means bodily health ; to abuse 
them brings punishment to all the rest of the body. A babe's 
life and health is at the mercy of his care-takers ; hence the im- 
portance of mothers and nurses informing themselves. Except 
in hereditary cases sickly and diseased children are a reproach 
to their parents. The means for learning much of the proper 
care of children are to be found on every hand, so that entire 
ignorance is inexcusable. But there are a great many who 
do not know that they are ignorant ; who believe truly, when 
their babes are taken sick and die, that a dispensation of Provi- 
dence has overtaken them. Perhaps it is just as well for the 
world. The fool has been the problem of the ages, and the 
less the species is reproduced and raised to maturity, the better. 

Few women have ever any previous preparation for mother- 
hood. As Mrs. Stetson says, "They are fitted to attract the 
other sex for economic uses, or, at most, for mutual gratifica- 
tion, but not for motherhood. They are reared in unbroken 
ignorance of their supposed principal duties, knowing nothing 
of these duties till they enter upon them. 

"This is as though all men were to be soldiers, with the fate 
of nations in their hands, and no man told or taught a word of 
war or military service until he entered the battle-field. 

"The education of young women has no department of ma- 
ternity. It is considered indelicate to give this consecrated 
functionary any previous knowledge of her sacred duties. This 
most important and wonderful of human functions is left from 
age to age in the hands of absolutely untaught women. It is 
tacitly supposed to be fulfilled by the mysterious working of 
what we call *the divine instinct of maternity.' Maternal in- 
stinct is a very respectable and useful instinct, common to most 
animals. It is 'divine' and *holy' only as all the laws of nature 
are divine and holy." 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 281 

All women who expect to be wives and mothers, in justice 
to themselves, must study what those relations mean and how 
best to acquit themselves when placed in those positions. To 
fully equip herself as a well-rounded human being will make 
her not only more valuable as a mother of the race, but as 
an individual character. 

To return to infant feeding. When possible the mother's 
milk is the only food to be given. He should be given the 
breast every hour of the twenty- four for the first week; from 
that up to the sixth week, twice during the night and every two 
hours during the day. If put to bed at seven p. m. he will 
need to nurse about nine and eleven, leaving his mother from 
then till five a. m. undisturbed. 

The natural feebleness of infantile functions makes regular- 
ity in feeding imperative. One hard and fast rule can not be 
made to apply in all cases. Some babes will need to be fed 
oftener than others ; some less. The hours here given are ap- 
proximately correct. 

After the sixth week the interval between feedings may be 
increased until, by the fourth month, it reaches three hours; 
this interval is usually continued until weaning, which will 
occur at from nine to twelve months. 

When the mother's milk is not sufficiently plentiful, artificial 
feeding may be used in connection with nursing, alternating 
with the breast. There is a considerable difference between 
cow's milk and human milk, and but few infants thrive when 
given pure cow's milk. There is, in ordinary cow's milk, 
about one-half the amount of sugar that is in breast milk ; and 
the curd to be driven from human milk is only about one-fifth 
as much as can be obtained from the same quantity of cow's 
milk. To prevent too much curd in the stomach of the baby 
the milk is diluted with double its quantity of water; this re- 



282 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

duces the amount of sugar and fat which is already too low. 
The feeding of diluted cow's milk causes the child to take a 
larger quantity to get nourishment enough, and the over- 
crowding often causes distension and feebleness, colic and 
other difficulties. To overcome the lack of sugar and fat the 
milk may be diluted as before, using one part milk and two 
parts water; add sweet cream equal to half the quantity of 
milk, and one teaspoonful of sugar of milk to four ounces of 
cream. 

It is better to feed with a spoon. There is not then the 
anxiety of keeping nursing-bottles, nipples and tubes steril- 
ized. 

Weoning:. 

The time for weaning a babe must depend to a certain ex- 
tent upon the health of the mother and the development of the 
babe. If the mother is strong and the babe hardy, nursing 
may be prolonged up to twelve months ; rarely longer. To in- 
sure good health for herself and child, a mother should be 
reasonably free from heavy labor, avoiding both mental and 
physical fatigue. It is not necessary to give especial attention 
to her own diet beyond a wholesome supply of nourishing 
foods. If there is a scant secretion of milk she should drink 
freely of milk, or chocolate, or bouillon. Vice versa, if the flow 
IS too copious she must drink sparingly of all liquids. 

The easier way to wean a child is to begin about a month 
before he is expected to give up the breast by substituting a 
prepared food for one of the three-hour meals. The next day 
give the preparation alternately with the breast — and so on 
until the breast can be withheld entirely. When any reason 
exists for abrupt weaning it is done at once completely. This 
is harder for both child and mother, however. 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 383 

It is a great mistake to take a child to the table and allow 
him to eat of whatever is placed thereupon, after weaning. 
His digestive powers must grow gradually to take heavy 
foods. While such may be given, and the child is not sickened 
thereby, it does not argue that it is digested and assimilated. 
If the digestive apparatus does not rebel at once, sooner or later 
overtaxing will tell. It should easily be seen by any one 
willing to think that food for an adult is not suitable for the 
stomach of an infant. Almost any place through the country 
districts one can see mothers carrying tiny babes to the table 
and giving them mashed potatoes, gravy, bread and butter, and 
even coffee and tea. They then are surprised and worried 
because bowel complaint ensues, especially during the teething 
period. The teething period should cause no worry. It will 
not, if methodical and judicious feeding has been the rule. 

After weaning, or from the tenth to the fourteenth month, 
the child should have five meals daily; at seven a. m., half 
past ten a. m., two p. m., six p. m. and ten p. m. The first 
meal may be the milk mixture given before ; the next a cupful 
of full cow's milk warmed; the third a soft boiled tgg with 
stale bread-crumbs; the fourth the milk mixture; the last a 
cupful of warm cow's milk. The mid-day meal may be varied 
occasionally with broth of chicken, beef or mutton. 

From the fourteenth to the eighteenth month the diet may 
be more substantial. For the first meal a cupful of bread and 
milk may be given ; for the next a cracker, or bread and butter, 
with a cupful of milk ; for the third a slice of bread, a cupful 
of broth, and some rice and milk pudding; the fourth bread 
and milk ; the last a cupful of milk. This bill of fare may be 
varied by giving a soft boiled tgg or a baked potato in place 
of sc-mething else. 

li \he child wishes to sleep over the hour for the last meal, 



284 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

never awaken him to eat. Instead, give him a cup of milk 
when he first awakens in the morning; he should not have to 
go hungry until the regular breakfast hour. 

The young mother in her inexperience is often sorely 
oppressed by giving heed to the many conflicting bits of advice 
that come to her as to raising her baby. The best way in which 
to fortify herself will be to obtain some reliable book and con- 
scientiously carry out its injunctions. She then has one con- 
sistent guide. If her baby thrives she may know she is in the 
right. 

The nursing mother as well as the pregnant woman should 
not have to experience sexual excitement. It robs either her 
or the babe, or both, of vitality, as well as bequeathing to 
the child, through the mother's milk, an abnormal sexual appe- 
tite. When young men and young women are properly pre- 
pared for marriage and parenthood they will know that that 
estate is higher than one of mere indulgence of the sex pas- 
sion. Sex passion is abnormal when it cannot be controlled 
for the welfare of all to be considered. 

How to Dress the Baby^ 

The dress of a babe should always be plentifully warm. To 
keep a child warm from its birth doubles its chances of life. 
Too much dependence is usually placed on the heating of 
houses, most of which are superheated. A babe should be 
dressed for the most part in flannel, during winter. Authori- 
ties disagree as to whether or not flannel should be worn next 
the skin. It absorbs and retains moisture from the body. 

The "Gertrude" baby garments, devised by Dr. Grosvenor 
of Chicago for his own baby daughter, are very simple and 
sensible. The first garment is in one piece from neck to hem ; 
it slopes at the waist-line and flares at the skirt to give a proper 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 285 

width. The seams in sleeves and princess are on the outside. 
Over this is a petticoat of all wool, without sleeves. It is cut 
the same way, only an inch wider and two inches longer. Any 
outside garment desirable may be worn. The beauty of this 
system is the saving in time and strength for mother and baby. 
Before getting the bath ready, one garment is slipped inside 
the other and made ready, so when baby is dried, and the 
diaper, socks and band are adjusted, he can be slipped into 
his regalia in no time. With one motion they can be drawn 
over the head, or up over the feet, and with face downward 
each garment is fastened with one or two buttons. 

The band which used to be supposed to strengthen the ab- 
dominal wall, and not taken off for months, is gone. When 
the navel no longer needs dressing, which time varies from 
five to fifteen days, the close-fitting band should be removed. 
In its place now comes a knitted wool band that reaches from 
under the arms to the hips. This preserves a degree of warmth 
for the stomach, bowels, liver and lungs, necessary for health. 

"Babyhood" gives the following directions for a crocheted 
baby-band : "Single zephyr in ridge stitch, that is, half stitch, 
in which going back and forth only the back half of the 
stitches in the lower row are picked up. Begin on a chain of 
fifty and crochet forty-eight ridges, or ninety-six rows. Join 
by a row of tight stitches, or by sewing. Finish off at bottom 
by a row of plain stitches topped by a picot-edging (five chains 
and a tight stitch back into the first)." 

This band should be worn throughout the period of denti- 
tion ; longer if there is delicacy of digestion. Little wool socks, 
and shoes as soon as creeping begins, should be worn the year 
around. 

The points to be observed in clothing a baby are warmth, 
looseness and a uniform covering of the whole body. 



286 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

One writer gives a description of what an infant's clothing 
formerly was. She says : "The old style of dressing a new- 
born baby consisted first — no matter how cold the weather — 
of a tiny sleeveless shirt made of the finest linen. Then came 
a band of muslin, double, which was wound around and around 
the child's body several times and pinned tight. Then came a 
straight piece of flannel gathered into a band of two thick- 
nesses of muslin fully three-quarters of a yard long which was 
wound around the baby tight, 'to support its little back, you 
know.' It was then pinned every inch with a straight pin. 
The flannel was folded each side over baby's legs and the ends 
brought up and pinned to the band in front. You will won- 
der if it could kick. Over this horror was put a flannel skirt — 
this also with a long band. 'Over that went a cambric skirt 
tucked and ruffled and long enough to cover the flannel one. 
Last of all came the dress of the finest, thinnest lawn or cam- 
bric, more or less tucked and ruffled. 

"Think of it! If every band went around but once there 
were eight or ten thick, stiff layers of muslin drawn tightly 
and pinned over the lower part of the chest, liver, stomach 
and all the vital organs, and over the upper chest, neck and 
arm but one layer of the sheerest fabric." 

The end-of-the-century baby may well be thankful for hav- 
ing been called into existence no earlier. 

The diaper, or napkin, should be abandoned as soon as the 
child is able to make known the demands of nature. This time 
varies according to the skill in training. 

The style of night dress varies with the taste of the mother. 
It is made preferably of wool for winter and cotton or linen 
for summer. Some mothers use a plain little night robe; a 
very serviceable garment for a young baby is a long gown 
with a draw-string at the bottom, to prevent the little feet 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY, 387 

from kicking free from cover. When the babe is older, draw- 
ers made with waist, sleeves and stockings are to be recom- 
mended, as furnishing a uniform covering for the body, and 
for freedom of movement. 

No clotliing for either night or day should restrict free 
movement. The growing baby must be able to make all 
voluntary and involuntary movements with perfect freedom. 
If the shoes are tight the circulation of blood is imperfect; 
anything tight about the chest or waist prevents perfect respira- 
tion and digestion. Development is retarded whenever these 
precautions are disregarded. Clothing worn during the day 
should be changed upon getting ready*for bed. The band and 
napkin must be replaced by clean ones before the bed-gown 
is put on. The day clothing must be placed where it can air 
all night, if it is expected to be worn the next day. The same 
should be done with the night clothing after the babe is. dressed 
in the morning. Not infrequently do housewives put the night 
clothing under the pillow when making the bed. 

The Baty's Sleep* 

The hours for sleep are regulated with the same precision 
as the meals, usually, although the infant depends upon mother 
or nurse to be fed, and can go to sleep of his own accord. 
New-born babes spend all the time aside from feeding and 
dressing in sleep. As the senses unfold a little more, waking 
time occurs each day, until at the age of a year and a half he 
will sleep about fourteen out of the twenty-four hours, and 
about eleven hours at three years. 

The regularity consists in getting him ready for bed at a 
given hour every night, and once or twice during the 
day, according to the age. After the fourth or fifth year few 
children will sleep during the day; but at night they should 
retire not later than eight o'clock. 



288 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

Most mothers will prefer putting their own babies to bed; 
it is such a good time for cultivating confidences, especially 
after conversation becomes possible. One never more realizes 
the feeling of nearness, "the flesh of my flesh, and dear of 
my heart" consciousness. She who delegates this hour to a 
hireling misses one of the precious heritages of motherhood. 

No child of any age should sleep with an adult, or with 
another child. A babe may be placed in a crib by the side of 
its mother's bed where she can easily attend to its needs. 

If the babe is fed and put to bed at seven in the evening, 
at nine and at eleven it will need to be fed again. At which 
times the mother should see if the napkin needs changing, 
and in returning it to the crib its position should be changed. 
Damp napkins can be prevented by holding the child out at 
feeding time. Both child and mother should have unbroken 
rest from eleven p. m. until morning. The bed should consist 
of a mattress covered with a rubber cloth upon which is a pad 
the length and breadth of the mattress. Crib sheets and blan- 
kets form the covering, and a very small pillow supports the 
head and neck. 

Feathers are objectionable because the body, sinking among 
them, is kept too warm, which weakens the system and makes 
it susceptible to cold. 

Care should be observed about not covering the nose and 
mouth. It will be better to have a fire in the room with light 
bed-covering than to oppress the body with weighty covers. 
If the little one is restless, it is a good plan to secure the blan- 
kets in several places with stout safety pins such as are used 
in blanketing horses, ta prevent its becoming uncovered and 
getting chilled. If the child comes in winter, hot water bot- 
tles are good to place about the little body to preserve its heat. 

As soon as the child is taken up in the morning the bedding 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. - 289 

should be placed separately in the direct sunlight and air and 
not be made up for an hour or longer. The great disadvan- 
tage of having a bed in the living-room is the inability to ex- 
pose it for any length of time to the sunshine and air before 
making it up; especially so in cold weather. Whenever pos- 
sible the bed-rooms should be separate from the living-rooms, 
and the windows never closed except against a storm. 

The baby's crib-bed being left to air in the bed-room, for 
day-time use the padded box-bed is serviceable. Take a box 
of good dimensions, pad it well inside and cover the outside 
with a pretty cretonne ; place baby's pillow and blanket therein, 
and there is as safe and comfortable a bed as can be found. 
If the mother must be chief domestic as well as nurse, the box- 
bed may be mounted on casters, and drawn to whatever part 
of the house requires mother's presence. 

Crying: Babies UnnoturoL 

Never dose an infant with drugs, soothing syrups and the 
like. Crying babies are unnatural. If baby cries there is some- 
thing wrong; unless the training is wrong and he is crying 
to have his own way. In neither instance should drugging be 
resorted to. Discover the cause and correct it. Trying to 
overcome an eifect by administering medicine brings on a 
worse disorder as the effect of the medicine. 

Dr. William Hall says : "A very common practice is to give 
something to stop the baby from crying; then when diarrhea 
follows, to give something to stop the diarrhea ; and so it does ; 
it keeps the infant from crying, it cures diarrhea ; it is infalli- 
ble in summer complaints; but sooner or later, or within a 
few days, inflammation of the brain comes on, and the child 
dies; the mother does not note the connection. When the 
child does not die it will grow up puny in body or mind. One 



390 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

mother who said she never went visiting without her bottle 
of soothing syrup raised her baby. But "the child could never 
continue in school for headaches ; hence was not fully equipped 
for adult life, through lack of education. 

Exercise and Air. 

Exercise for a little child should begin about the third or 
fourth day after birth, when it may be carried gently in the 
nurse's arms for ten minutes, two or three times daily. After 
the first month, if the weather is warm, it should be carried 
out of doors as often daily, using an extra wrap and cap to 
protect the child; except, of course, stormy days. It may 
then be carried to a distant part of the house where good ven- 
tilation is possible. The nurse should walk slowly and evenly, 
to prevent any sudden jars to the delicate organism. Jolting, 
jarring, noise, if a part of the earliest environment of a babe, 
surely start it on the road to viciousness. When there is no 
pain to attend nor want to satisfy the babe should be quiet 
and happy. If these are ignored and the infantile mind- 
diverted by jolts, jarring, singing, his temper becomes soured 
and his disposition biased for ill. 

The babe should not be held in an upright position for any 
length of time. Ordinarily the child will not be able to sup- 
port its own head and back until the sixth to the eighth month. 
The muscles of the back which hold the spine in position should 
be thoroughly strengthened by growth and development before 
the babe is encouraged to sit alone. Nature's work cannot, 
with impunity, be hastened, no more in infancy than before 
or during birth. Curvature of the spine results from muscles 
of the back being used before there is proper strength. When 
weak the weight of the trunk pulls the spine forward; then 
the chest movements are hindered, the blood imperfectly 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 291 

aerated, and the child becomes an incurable weakling, or de- 
formed. 

As soon as a child begins to know the joys of activity, he 
should be laid upon a mattress or sofa, guarding him so he 
cannot fall, and be allowed to exercise in his own way. He will 
kick his legs, wave his arms, crow and show all the points of 
a healthy animal. All these movements serve to strengthen; 
even the crowing and "ah-goo" of articulation strengthen the 
voice-box. Exercise is one of the essential conditions of 
growth. Healthy life demands activity. As the child grows 
older he should not be persuaded into any attempts at physical 
exertion; when there is strength of body and mind enough 
to control the muscular action, attempts will be made of his 
own accord. He must be given time to work out the solutions 
to his own problems if he be hardy for so doing. 

After a baby is four months of age, a carriage may be 
used to take him out daily. Up to this time the arms are 
preferable, especially in cold weather, the heat from the body 
of mother or nurse warming the child. The weight should 
be changed from arm to arm occasionally during an airing. 
If the weather is cold when the carriage is assumed, a hot- 
water bottle should be placed to the feet. The body of the 
carriage should be made comfortable with one or more pillows, 
upon which the baby is laid, and covered cozily. The sun- 
shade should always be ready to screen the eyes from any 
trying light. Care should be used in traveling over rough 
places in the street, to prevent jars. 

When the child begins to creep the proper place for such 
exercise is perplexing to find. A baby-tender, which is a kind 
of low fence of given dimensions, and hinges together, is use- 
ful. If the weather is cold, and the floor more or less 
draughty, the space enclosed may be made comfortable by one 



292 HYGIENE OF INFANCY, 

or two comforts so laid as to line baby's "yard." Or a large 
box, suitable for plenty of movement, may be padded and 
placed on casters for use of the creeper; if it is slatted part 
of the way up, say the top half of its height, the little hands 
will try to assist to the standing posture, and thus gain strength 
for walking. 

After the power to walk is developed the open-air exercise 
may, once during the day, be taken on foot, carefully protect- 
ing the feet and legs before going out if the weather is chilly 
or damp. 

The Child's Spiritual Development 

After all the physical wants have been properly attended, 
another need, just as important, at the same time must be sup- 
plied : it is an environment of love. Physical comforts are es- 
sential to. bodily growth and development; love is required for 
spiritual development — for the true internal growth of indi- 
viduality. Love is spiritual sunshine. 

Little ones early reflect surrounding conditions. Living in 
an atmosphere of harmony, they will develop naturally and 
without the abrupt streaks of anger and cruelty which too 
frequently make themselves manifest. Home life being 
inharmonious, the budding character is warped in accordance 
therewith. 

Father and mother should be playmates and comrades, 
rather than superior beings or rulers of whom a child stands 
in awe. 

In learning the language of the household, simplicity must 
be the rule to conform with the thoughts of the infant. A 
profusion of words is objectionable; they confuse rather than 
conform to the child ideals. "Language that lies beyond the 
comprehension of the child finds nc thought or germs of 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 293 

thought with which to unite in the child's mind, and thus 
retards mental development by loading the mind with incon- 
gruous elements, with food that can not be digested or assim- 
ilated — ^placing the brain in the condition of an infant's 
stomach loaded with dainties and rich food ; the stomach may 
te full, but it can not save the child from starvation. Thus, 
if a child — say nine months old — is thirsty, the words, *Must 
its mamma div her pets a little dink ?' are, perhaps, not a whit 
more injurious than 'Does mother's little darling want a 
drink?' Both make false impressions or none at all to corre- 
spond with the child's mental condition, unless it be the word 
*drink' in the second form. But the words 'Baby — drink' will 
correspond so nearly with the simple forms of the child's 
thoughts and feelings, that, in connection \vith suitable actions 
on the part of the mother, they will go far towards liberating 
these thoughts and bringing them to clearer consciousness." — 
Law of Childhood. 

Molding: Mind and Character. 

As the body must build its structures out of the food mate- 
rial given it, so must the character and mind of the child be 
made out of the every-day influences of its life. He speaks 
the language, thinks the thoughts, copies the acts of those by 
whom he is surrounded, as soon as the mind sufficiently un- 
folds. If he hears nothing but kind, loving w^ords, he will be 
kind. If he hears no slang at home, what is heard outside will 
make little impression ; so with profane and impure language. 
The personality of the child is the total of all the tendencies, 
good or bad, rough or gentle, which he has inherited, and all 
of the images which he has received since birth, every second 
of his life. The child is then worth whatever he gets from 
mother and father, as developed or controlled by education. 



294 HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 

Let him live in an atmosphere of strife and selfishness where 
might makes right, where the weak must yield to the strong, 
unjust though it may be, where the father of the family ruth- 
lessly disregards the wants of mother and children, while the 
mother goes about as a thief in her own house, stealing, what is 
her own to feed and clothe herself and children, and very soon 
the child will grow to feel that his desires can be gotten by 
force or strategy. He loses that straightforwardness which 
characterizes honesty, and through no fault of his own. 

Says Mr. B. O. Flower in the Coming. Age: "Look to the 
little ones. Spend every moment you can with them; teach 
them unselfishness, gentleness, and loyalty to truth. Educate 
their minds and their souls. This, O parents, is your first and 
greatest duty. The children demand it; they have come at 
your bidding, they are your guests and your offspring, and 
they are in the dark; you must lead them to the sun-bathed 
highways of goodness and knowledge. 

'The future also demands it. You have no right to call 
forth lives which, through your neglect, indifference and care- 
less ignorance, shall curse the civilization of tomorrow, or" 
heap sin and sorrow on society, already groaning beneath its 
load of woe." 

Severe measures in the training of little folks generally lack 
coolness and wisdom. Parents, too often, consult their own 
comfort and convenience rather than benefits to the child. 
This is especially true when the child arrives at the age of 
three or four years ; when, as some people are wont to say, it 
can look out for itself. Because the little brain can not com- 
prehend what is said to it, the child is punished often with 
blows. When fits of anger come to him as the result of con- 
tact with an atmosphere charged with parental unbalance, more 
harshness is administered to quell the disturbed equilibrium. 



HYGIENE OF INFANCY, 295 

But terrorizing the little one does no real good. The superior 
force may quiet the tempest temporarily, but it will burst forth 
at another time. To efface wrong in a child it must first be 
effaced in the elders. 

A keynote of happiness should be sounded for the day by 
father and mother, and the smaller ones will attune themselves 
to it. Home is the place where all should cultivate cheerfulness 
as a duty. It is the haven of rest and development for all its 
inmates, and mainly depends for its integrity upon the two 
who founded it — the father and mother. 



PART III 




CHAPTER VI. 

Development from Birth to Puberty, 

NFANTS born at full time vary in length and 
weight from the twelve or fourteen pound baby 
to the tiny doll-like creature of one and a half to 
two pounds. The average weight is about seven 
pounds, and the average length about eighteen inches. 
Large infants have heretofore been considered the more hardy, 
but observation proves that the babe who is merely round and 
plump, and not fat, is healthiest. Mothers can, during gesta- 
tion, regulate the size of offspring at birth, by attention to ex- 
ercise and diet. A small child that is healthy will make the 
journey to the external world with less pain to his mother and 
danger to himself than a large one. 

During the first week of life the child may lose a few ounces 
as the result of a changed environment, but this should be 
recovered at the end of ten days, and the weight thereafter 
steadily increase. The subjoined table will indicate the approx- 
imate growth from one month to one year of age : 

Age, Length. Weight, 

Birth i8 inches 7 pounds 

1 month 20 inches 8 pounds 

2 months 21 inches , 9J pounds 

3 months , . . 22 inches 1 1 pounds 

4 months 23 inches 12J pounds 

296 



DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO. PUBERTY. 297 

Age. Length. Weight. 

5 months 23^ inches 14 pounds 

6 months 24 inches 15 pounds 

7 months 24^ inches 16 pounds 

8 months 25 inches 17 poiinds 

9 months 25^ inches 18 pounds 

10 months 26 inches 19 pounds 

1 1 months 26^ inches 20 pounds 

12 months 2y inches 21 pounds 

Primarily the head and secondarily the body are large wHen 
compared with the arms and legs, but the disproportion is 
overcome in normal development. Length increases more rap- 
idly during the first month than at any time thereafter. 

All babies are born with blue eyes ; if there is to be a change 
in color it is noticeable at about the third month. At birth the 
sense of sight is very imperfect; the child distinguishes only 
between light and shade. It has frequently been observed that, 
when a night-light has been used in the lying-in room, after 
it is no longer needed the baby would cry for it as being 
preferable to the dark. These instances occur, however, when 
no regularity is observed as to baby's habits. 

From the sixth week to the second month the new world 
unfolding to the blank mind may be noticed in the discovery 
of his own fists. The recognition of objects by sight is evident 
about the sixth month. 

For a variable period after birth hearing is not aroused. 
Taste and touch are present at birth. 

The Child Mind's First impr ession* 

"The first impression on the mind of the child should be 
made by means of contact with the mother. The little aimless 
hand, blindly groping in its new environment, should touch the 
mother's flesh, and the velvety cheek should come in contact 



298 DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY, 

with nothing less than the mother's breast/' says Dr. Melendy. 
"The sense of touch inevitably communicates its delight to its 
four companion senses, and in a -short time excites them 
to activity. 

"In the marvelous laboratory of the mother's system has 
been prepared milk, sweet, sapid and nutritious, which awak- 
ens into its delight the sense of taste. By a delightful affect- 
ing of the senses is thus laid in the mind of the babe the 
foundation for every future idea of sym.pathy and beauty." 

It has often been noticed that new-born infants have a dread 
of being left without support. This is probably due to the 
changed sensation after birth. While V\^ithin the uterus, there 
is pressure on all sides, the absence of which is sensible to 
the infant at birth. It will cling tenaciously to anything within 
reach. Much restlessness and fretfulness could be overcome in 
newly arrived babies by firmly supporting the body on all sides 
with pillows and blankets. 

When the new baby is first washed it will be seen thai its 
skin is covered with down, the fineness of which varies much 
in different children ; sometimes it can hardly be seen, while in 
others it gives a furry appearance to the babe. 

Usually both bowels and kidneys will act during the first 
twenty- four hours ; after that the bowels will be moved twice or 
three times daily and the bladder will be emptied five or six 
times daily. 

The umbilical cord will become detached usually on the fifth 
day. 

Mental and Physical Development. 

Unfolding of intelligence and the development of physical 
powers keep pace, the brain guiding the activities of the body. 
This is, however, not true when mothers try to make their 



DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 399 

babes precocious in walking or creeping or any of the phases 
of development that should come naturally. Persuaded to do 
things which they themselves have not mastered, the courage 
which goes with personal mastery is not theirs. 

Eruption of the milk teeth comes at variable periods in differ- « 
ent infants; from the third to the thirteenth month is about 
the range of the deviation of the appearance. 

Normally the teeth are cut in groups, each effort being suc- 
ceeded by a period of rest. The lower middle incisors usually 
appear first, to be followed in from three to nine weeks by the 
four upper incisors. The next group will be the other lower 
incisors and the first four molars, which are cut from the 
twelfth to the fifteenth month. The four canines, or cuspids, 
known as the "eye-teeth" and "stomach-teeth," come at from a 
year and a half to two years, and the last four molars between 
the twentieth and thirtieth month; these complete the first 
set, or milk-teeth. 

The first indication of a beginning of the power of locomo- 
tion is when the babe will try to rest upon its feet when taken 
into the lap. When about seven or eight months of age, if 
placed upon the floor he will try to reach what is just beyond, 
first stretching out a hand and following with the knee. Later 
the erect posture comes. The babe will, by holding to a 
chair or anything that affords support, walk about that article. 
Then, when stronger, he will take one or more steps alone, 
gradually gaining strength and control over his muscles. At 
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth month he should be 
able to walk alone with ease and assurance. When the powers 
of walking are not developed at two years of age the case 
should be investigated, as it is hardly a natural condition. 
Delay may be due to general feebleness, to paralysis of the 



300 DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY, 

muscles of one or both legs, while a limping with pain in 
the knee would suggest hip-joint disease. 

In acquiring speech children learn to communicate by imi- 
tating other members of the family. Younger children learn 
. more quickly than the first-born for having small playmates. 
A child of one year can generally articulate a few words of 
one syllable, but not more, because the small muscles of the 
larynx are not sufficiently under control. It appears to be 
easier, later, to pronounce a word of more than one syllable 
than to say two or more words of but one syllable, the brain 
not being equal to express the meaning of more than one word. 
At eighteen months most infants will be able to use a number 
of short sentences, and at two years to have a pretty fair com- 
mand of language with which to communicate with the family. 

It is rare to find a child that is precocious in both walking 
and talking. When they are forward in one direction they 
are backward in the other. If the sense of hearing is known 
to be acute, and the child is healthy, there need never be any 
worry as to backwardness in speech. 

As soon as speech becomes possible, in any degree, the idea 
represented thereby becomes known. Words when learned are 
associated with the objects to which they apply. Between one 
and two years a child will distinguish small numbers, as one, 
two, three, four; at about the same time it has the sense 
of color, and can name some of the primaries. Distinguishing 
between noise and music varies very much. Some children 
very early are charmed by music, while others are *'tone-deaf," 
as was Du Maurier's Trilby; but this apparently bears no 
relation to unfolding intelligence. 

From the third to the sixth year development of intelligence 
is quite rapid. Prof. Kallmann says: "Endowed with an 
uncontrollable tendency for a further evolution in all direc- 



DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 301 

tions, he stretches forth points of contact, eager to unite with 
any assimilable elements that may offer. As yet his power 
of discernment is small, with reference to the good or evil 
that is to result from the union. The tender membranes of 
the stomach absorb the corrupt liquid that breeds disease and 
death almost as eagerly as they do the wholesome milk of the 
mother; the mind receives delusive impressions, unites with 
the elements of vile thoughts and feelings as freely as with 
their opposites; the energies are exerted and grow in the 
direction of vice as actively as they do in the direction of vir- 
tue and wisdom; the child thrives as vigorously into hate as 
into love." 

The senses and emotions predominate over the reason and 
intelligence. Training during these years must consist in 
guarding the child against contaminating influences, so that 
he will be brought in contact only with that which will aid 
him to grow in purity and goodness. And, as Prof. Hailmann 
further says, "the indiscriminate tendencies for absorption 
undergo a differentiation; the tendencies for wholesome ele- 
ments gather new^ strength from day to day by uniting with 
their similars; the tendencies for injurious elements are weak- 
ened at an equal rate, starved to death, as it were, isolated, 
transformed into tendencies for good. The system is forming 
good habits, we say, and 'the formation of good habits' is the 
watchword of the true education of childhood." 

The Teeth. 

Second dentition begins about the sixth year, the first teeth 
appearing being the four double teeth just behind the posterior 
molars; they are the first permanent molar teeth. The milk 
teeth are displaced by the second teeth. As the permanent 
tooth grows toward the edge of the gum, it presses on the 
root of the milk-tooth in front and causes its absorption, the 



S02 DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY, 

whole root usually disappearing, and the temporary tooth 
loosens and drops out. The edge of the tooth that drops out 
is more or less ragged and sometimes gives rise to the idea 
that the tooth has been broken off. This, however, is not tiue, 
unless there has been actual violence. 

The first milk-teeth to loosen and drop out are the two lower 
incisors, they usually being first to be cut; the second teeth 
which displace the milk-teeth follow the order of eruption of 
the first set. Sometimes, instead of causing the root to be 
absorbed the canines cut through the gum above or below the 
temporary teeth; when this is to be observed the first tooth 
must be removed, or "fangs," as the unsightly growths are 
called, will mar the facial appearance. From their position 
at the angles of the mouth these four teeth, more than any 
of the others, can make or mar the countenance. The perma- 
nent set is not completed until the appearance of the "wisdom 
teeth'* at from sixteen years up — sometimes they never come 
through. Second dentition is considered done about the 
twelfth year, wisdom teeth not being regarded. There are 
twenty-eight teeth, until the appearance of the wisdoms. 

Teething children during either the first or second dentition 
must have an even, smooth regime of daily life or they will 
be more or less fretful and querulous. The business of par- 
enthood requires steady care during the progress through 
childhood to puberty. And if the healthy, happy child needs 
care, how much more must be the share of another who is an 
invalid — or semi-invalid. 

A Nurse's Wise Si gfgfestions* 

A trained nurse says : "A sick child needs most of all to 
forget himself. Little need, in these days of the clinical ther- 
mometer, the 'feeling the pulse,' and understanding the facial 
expression, to be always quizzing an invalid as to how *he 



DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 303 

feels,' if 'the pain is gone,' if he *is better now,' if 'anything 
hurts him,' or *don't you feel able to sit up?' An intelligent 
nurse or mother can answer all these questions for herself 
without a word. To be put in mind of one's pain is as bad 
as the pain. Any one who has been sick knows there are in- 
tervals of self-unconsciousness when the thought is fixed upon 
some pleasant theme. * * * Every word and every act of 
the sick-room should be with a view to banishing self-con- 
sciousness. Do not even ask if the invalid is hungry. If it is 
time to eat, tempt by the sight of food. 'Spring the sugges- 
tion' on him and surprise the failing appetite, which if ques- 
tioned does not always answer. 

"There is danger of a sick child's being made selfish by his 
attendants. Teach him to think of others and to make as 
little trouble for willing feet and hands as possible. The child 
will be happier and have a better 'getting-up' morally. * * * 
The art of keeping a happy face before an invalid child is 
difficult to acquire, especially if the nurse is the mother, and 
a happy tone is yet more difficult. 

"To rehearse a child's symptoms before the invalid is to do 
a very dreadful thing. In a short time the child will 'show 
off' his aches and pains for the benefit of strangers or members 
of the family. He will be taught that his sickness is interest- 
ing, and learn to exaggerate in an innocent way for the 
entertainment of friends. * * * Better teach the child that 
illness is often nature's punishment for sins or neglect of her 
laws, and that the culprit who is suffering should be more 
ashamed and sorry than proud. At the best, illness of any 
sort is a misfortune and should not be :ven discussed with 
complaisance. And yet iH;iess may be a great teacher if the 
invalid has a wise nurse. Hearty resolves as to what good 
things one will do when one gets well are beneficial and hasten 
recovery." 



304 DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 



Growth in Height and Weight. 

The growth during childhood is seldom uniform. Children 
will often remain stationary for a time and then have a period 
of rapid growth. In the ninth or tenth year and again at the 
approach of puberty there are sudden shoots at growth. 

The following table will give a good average for growth in 
height and weight from one year up to fourteen years : 



Age. 

1 year. 

2 years 

3 years 

4 years 

5 years 



Height. 
27 

31 
34 
36 
39 



nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 
nches 



Weight. 
21 pounds 
26 pounds 
29 pounds 
33 pounds 
36 pounds 
39 pounds 
44 pounds 
48 pounds 
52 pounds 
57 pounds 
61 pounds 
68 pounds 
yy pounds 
89 pounds 



6 years 41 

7 years 43 

8 years 46 

9 years 48 

10 years 50 

11 years 52 

12 years .53 

13 years 55 

14 years 58 

The chest measurement is regarded as another reliable evi- 
dence of development. The average infant should have a 
chest measurement of thirteen inches, which should at four 
months be increased to fifteen inches ; to sixteen inches by the 
sixth month, to seventeen by the twelfth month. When the 
age of five years is reached twenty-one inches is the average 
chest measurement. 

Children's Exercise and Play* 

After the fifth or sixth year exercises that develop the 
breathing powers should be encouraged. Well-developed lungs 
aid the body to resist disease; they are one of the important 
eliminating channels, as well as the source of blood aeration. 



1 



DEVELOPMENT FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 305 

Conscious breathing may be explained simply, so that a child 
will often of himself inflate and empty the lungs during the 
day 

Bed-time exercise is to be commended after the child is 
old enough to romp and play. Regularity should be ob- 
served, though the spirit of play should prevail. Of course 
a very young child can not be held to rule very well — but the 
kittenish frolic before bed-time paves the way for sound sleep. 

Mother or father should be the playmate and leading spirit ; 
and during the play-hour they will be enabled to learn tenden- 
cies that will guide them as shapers of character. The home 
in which children regard their parents as antagonistic to their 
recreation has something radically wrong at its foundation. 

Gerald Massey's Advice^ 

Gerald Massey, who lived in the middle of the nineteenth 
century and was a prophet as to the coming enlightenment, 
had the following to say on the rearing of children: "The 
life we live with them every day is the teaching that tells, and 
not the precepts uttered weekly that are continually belied by 
our own daily practices. Give the children a knowledge of nat- 
ural law, especially in that domain of physical nature which has 
hitherto been tabooed. If we break a natural law we suffer 
pain in consequence, no matter whether we know the law or 
not. This result is not an accident, because it always happens 
and is obviously intended to happen. Punishments are not to 
be avoided by ignorance of effects ; they can only be warded ofif 
by a knowledge of causes. Therefore nothing but knowledge 
can help them. * * * It is good to set before them the lofti- 
est ideals — not those that are mythical and non-natural, but 
those that have been lived in human reality. The best ideal 
of all has to be portrayed by the parents in the realities of life 



306 DEVELOPMENT PROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 

at home. The teaching that goes deepest will be indirect, and 
the truth will tell most on them when it is overheard. When 
you are not watching and the children are — that is when the 
lessons are learned for life." 

Building: Character* 

Knowledge of exact truth is the only sure way to create a 
loyalty to truth, and that, above and below all things, must 
form the true basis of character. Upon it all ideals should rest. 
Healthful, happy surroundings during the formative period of 
the ideal, with food for quickening the powers of imagination, 
will aid the youth to read delight in whatever sphere of life 
it may be his to live. As Gerald Massey says, a noble life, a 
splendid deed when unfolded to the child lights up his imagina- 
tion and carries his thoughts and purposes into the realm of to- 
morrow, when he too will be an actor in the busy world of 
affairs. 

When the development of imagination is neglected life is 
apt to be tame, without flavor or perfume. So while the body 
develops according to the care given it, the soul of a child, 
which really molds the after life, must be given its larger share 
of cultivation. Body and mind act and react on each other. But 
while the body may be made a perfect physique, if the poetic 
and emotional phases of character do not unfold, most of the 
influences which are uplifting will be as a sealed book, or as if 
they were not. 



PART III 




CHAPTER VII. 

Disorders of Infancy and Childhood. 

'OR convenience, the consideration of these dis- 
orders will be made under the heads of those occur- 
ring in early infancy, during dentition, and the 
common maladies of childhood. 
In a tedious and difficult labor the shape of the head of an 
infant is sometimes deformed, and at times there 
are bruises resulting from prolonged pressure. The head will 
soon assume a natural shape. If the bruises are severe they 
may be bathed with something cooling; as witch-hazel and 
water. 

The Umbilical Cord — The NoveL 

The separation of the umbilical cord does not always pro- 
ceed normally. It should shrink and dry away, with only a 
fine line of ulceration at the junction with the abdomen; and, 
when ready to drop off on the fifth or sixth day, it should 
leave a healthy skin with a slight depression in the center. The 
departure from the normal is when the stump of the cord 
softens and decays. In this there is a wide line of ulceration 
and a very perceptible odor of decay ; the separation does not 
occur so quickly. When the navel cord is dressed with antiseptic 
absorbent cotton this condition will not occur. The cord should 
be powdered frequently with an antiseptic dry powder such as 

307 



308 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

boracic acid mixed with starch, which will arrest decomposi- 
tion. 

Occasionally, after separation of- the cord, a small growth 
about the size of a pea will appear on the navel and discharge 
a thin liquid. The source of this discharge will be found to 
be a small ulcerating surface within the depression of the navel. 
This should be carefully washed and dusted with the antisep- 
tic powder. 

Rupture at the navel is not uncommon in infancy, owing 
to the thinness of the abdominal w^all at that point. If, from 
any cause, the child cries lustily, the intestine may protrude to 
the size of a thimble, or larger. Care must be observed during 
the bath not to injure the protruding bowel. Upon dressing a 
padded pasteboard two inches square may be stitched into 
position, and placed over the rupture. Another recommenda- 
tion is to take Burgundy pitch plaster, melt and spread over 
a cloth two or three inches square; then mold a small marble 
of the pitch and place in the center of the cloth; heat just 
enough to moisten and immediately apply with the small ball 
pressing over the navel. This can be left several days or until 
it removes easily ; when another fresh one can replace it. An- 
other good method is to replace the intestine gently, and while ^ 
it is held back an assistant places over it several strips of 
adhesive plaster. I 

This form of rupture may appear at any time during the • 
first year of life, but is most common during the early weeks 
of infancy. It is curable when care is persistently used ; but if 
not, there is always more or less danger to health. 

Irritation from Urine. 

As the result of some irritating quality in the urine, the 
skin of the thighs, groins and lower abdomen sometimes be- 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 309 

comes inflamed and red; or may, instead of the redness, be 
covered with small pimples, the heads of which are flattened 
or abraded. When this exists it will be found that the artificial 
food has been too rich, or too abundant, in which case it must 
be diluted more, or lessened in quantity. The diaper must be 
changed as soon as the bladder evacuates, if possible to be 
known, and at least three times daily the parts should be 
thoroughly bathed, dried, and dusted with the antiseptic pow- 
der. The diaper must not be used again without washing. 

Crying when passing water should cause the nurse to make 
examination of the diaper to discover any unnatural condition 
of the urine. If there seems to be nothing abnormal in the 
urine, the externar organs should be examined to discover and 
correct any irritation, or detect any malformation. In the 
male infant there sometimes exists a narrowness or unusual 
length of the foreskin which will cause trouble. This is cor- 
rected by a slight bit of surgery known as circumcision. In 
female infants a thin membrane-is sometimes across the open- 
ing: a slight incision must then be made by the attending 
physician to remove it. 

Inflammation of the 'Eyelids* 

Inflammation of the eyelids of a new-born babe comes on 
about the third day. It will be noticed when the child awakens 
that the eyelids are slightly glued together, and the edges 
at the corner are redder than is natural. The light causes pain 
and there is a tendency to keep the eyelids closed. A collection 
of Watery matter at the inner corner of the eyelid tends to run 
down the cheeks. The lids then become red and swollen and 
are kept closed. 

When the first indication of glueyness is to be noticed*, at- 
tention should be given to cleansing the eyes, for the g^eat 



m DISORDERS. OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

point in the treatment is cleanliness. The eyes must be bathed 
three or four times daily with warm water, or warm milk and 
water. The best method for doing this is by two persons 
sitting facing each other. The one to administer the eye-bath 
receives the head in her lap while the assistant holds the body 
and confines the restless hands and feet. The head of the 
child is grasped firmly between the knees; the eyelids are 
separated and the eyeball washed with a very soft cloth moist- 
ened in the water. After the treatment the cloth should be 
burned, as this is a very contagious condition. The nurse 
must be very careful not to allow any of the discharge to get 
to her own eyes. 

Nursing: Sore Mouth* 

Thrush, aphtha, or nursing sore mouth, is due to errors in 
diet, or to an inherited scrofulous condition. It is a spongy, 
morbid growth of yellowish-white color. Examining the 
mouth of an infant suffering from thrush, it will be observed 
that the tongue and interior of the cheeks and gums are dotted 
over by small patches like flakes of curdled milk. The true 
condition may be ascertained by attempting to remove one 
of the patches. When the disease is severe there is trouble in 
nursing; hence the name "nursing sore mouth." Sometimes 
the child refuses his food on account of the pain caused by 
attempts to eat. 

This condition causes more or less indigestion through sym- 
pathy with the affected part. The importance attached to 
this disorder depends on the extent with which it interferes 
with digestion and the ability to take nourishment. It will not 
occur in children who are fed with regularity from the breast 
if the mother's milk is wholesome. But it is very common 
among babes fed artificially. Cleanliness of bottles, tubes and 



DISORDERS OF hNFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. %n 

nipples is imperative, and any slight disturbance of the digest- 
ive system should be corrected at once. The child's mouth 
should be examined frequently and the first indication of 
thrush met with proper treatment. The mouth should be 
washed lightly but thoroughly through the interior to remove 
any milk that may remain; after which a wash of sage tea 
in which a little borax has been dissolved will be all that is 
needed. The disorder rarely lasts more than a few days. 

Diarrhea* 

Diarrhea is Nature's method of eliminating objectionable 
matter from the digestive tract. In babes at the breast the 
condition is often caused by the mother's indiscretion in eating 
or drinking, or by worry and mental disturbance which so 
alter her milk that it is indigestible. 

In hand-fed infants similar causes may be traced, as change 
in the feed of the cow, milk from a different cow, or some 
slight decomposition in the milk not noticeable to the adult 
sight or taste. A previous indigestion may have existed in 
a small degree, which will result in severe diarrhea. 

The treatment will consist in finding and removing the 
cause, and in soothing and giving rest to the digestive canal. 
The child must be kept quiet, and heat applied. Never use 
remedies to check a diarrhea at once, as this prevents removal 
of obstructions and brings on serious illness. An enema of 
hot water will often bring relief without other aid. 

Dr. Westland says: "As a general rule the less medicine 
given to infants suffering from diarrhea, the more rapid 
their recovery will be ; and no medicine at all with the excep- 
tion of one small dose of castor-oil at the commencement of 
the illness should be given unless sanctioned by medical 
advice. The symptoms which would indicate the urgent neces- 
sity of skilled advice are, mainly, great frequency of motion. 



^12 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

the presence of vomiting, a wasted and pinched appearance 
of the face of the infant, tendency to coldness of the hands 
and feet, and indications of twitching and convulsions." 

Constipation* 
Constipation is an unnatural condition, coming usually to 
the nursing babe from the diet of the mother. The colon, or 
large intestine, becomes impacted with the residuum of food 
which should have passed away. Want of regularity in feed- 
ing and holding the child out to stool are among the causes. 

The first thing to do in constipation is to remove the im- 
pacted faeces. This may be done by injecting one to four 
teaspoonfuls of sweet oil to remain for six hours. To prevent 
the oil from being passed out at once a pad should be held 
against the rectal opening for five minutes. The object of the 
oil is to soften the hardened faeces. If there has been no action 
for six hours, then use an enema of warm soap and water, or 
salt and water. A teacupful will be sufficient to use for a 
small infant ; more for an older child. The syringe tube should 
be anointed with soap or vaseline to insure a painless entrance. 
If possible, prevent the immediate discharge of the water by 
pressure on the anus. This gives time for the muscular 
activity of the colon to be well established. 

The best position for the babe is on his back, or resting upon 
the abdomen upon the mother's lap. 

The soap suppository is often used to cause an action of 
the bowels. This is made from a piece of castile soap, shaved 
to the size of a lead pencil, tapering at one end, and about two 
inches long. It is moistened in water and inserted nearly the 
whole length. In from one to five minutes the bowels will be 
moved. 

After unloading the colon, attention must be directed to the 
cause. 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. ^1^ 

Never give a physic. A physic stimulates the secretions 
of the intestines and causes a free passage, but the reaction 
must come. The intestinal juices fall below the normal, the 
food cannot be well digested, and another wrong condition 
ensues resulting from the physic. After the lower bowel has 
been unloaded, try to overcome the constipation before it gets 
to be a habit. Massage over the abdomen for five or ten 
minutes at a regular hour each day will stimulate muscular 
activity. Give the child plenty of water to drink ; in especial, 
a drink of pure water the first thing in the morning. Water 
is natural to the body, and except when the body is very 
warm, or there is a bad diarrhea, it would hardly be possible 
to give a child too much water. 

Q)Iic» 

Colic has been a tormentor of infancy for generations; and 
the causes thereof are manifold. In infancy it may come from 
chill, from improper feeding, from maternal indiscretions, 
Dr. Stockham says : "Severe colics are usually the result of 
derangements of the liver, and when mothers are badly nour- 
ished the child is frequently born with the trouble." 

A mild paroxysm may be relieved by rubbing a warm hand 
over the bowels. Also rub the feet; it assists in equalizing 
the circulation, by which the pain is overcome. 

A warm bath of five minutes' duration is excellent. Let the 
sufferer be undressed and immersed to the ^rmpits. When he 
is removed and dried, he may be placed without dressing in a 
warm blanket. with a hot- water bottle to the feet. If sleep 
does not come, apply a poultice of cornmeal, or flaxseed in 
which there is a dash of mustard ; previous to this the bowels 
may be relieved by a warm water enema. Then give a half- 
dozen drops of brandy in some warm water, by way of the 



M DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

mouth. The stimulant is suggested if there is depression of 
the fontanelle, which suggests collapse. 

The preventive measures for colicky babies are warmth to 
the bowels and extremities, and regularity in feeding. The 
bowels must be kept warm by the flannel band, and the feet 
covered with soft wool socks and booties. 

It frequently occurs that infants do not pass away the 
meconium, or urine, for many hours, and sometimes not for 
days. If twelve hours elapse 'without action, the child should 
be immersed in a warm bath. This will relieve any congestion 
of the blood which may have prevented action of the kidneys. 
If there is any mammary secretion, putting the babe to the 
breast at once, allowing it to nurse, gives it material for caus- 
ing the digestion and kidneys to act. If there is no secretioii 
the babe may be given a small teaspoonful of pure soft water, 
which will clear the mouth, throat, oesophagus and stomach, 
and start an action in the digestive tract. 

Teething:. 

Under natural conditions there should be no constitutional 
disturbances during the period of teething. If the mother is 
well, living an even, hygienic life, her nursing babe should 
experience no suffering during early dentition. And if the 
child is fed with regularity, has plenty of food and fresh air, 
the later dentition should cause no disturbance to the system. 
But if the body is not kept in wholesome condition almost any 
disorder may be fastened upon the child, the most common 
being of nervous, or of digestive, origin. Feverish conditions 
are also easily generated. But there is no single cause so pro- 
lific in fatality as the belief that teething is the cause of serious 
illness. When this explanation sufBces the real cause of the 
illness is overlooked. 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. ^lo 

There is usually some irritation of the gums when the 
teeth are growing. Let the gums be frequently bathed in cool 
water. Allow the child to have a small, firm, clean piece of 
white cloth dampened in cool water to pull through his own 
toothless gums. Babes will always make strong efforts to gain 
relief. In addition to the irritation there is sometimes inflam- 
mation; often to such an extent that little ulcers are formed. 
These can be distinguished from thrush by the absence of any 
fungus growth. Indeed it is rare that thrush is to be seen 
after time for teething. Should the ulcers occur the applica- 
tion of glycerine of borax is excellent to apply to the gums 
twice daily. Lemon juice rubbed gently over the swollen gum 
is also excellent to relieve irritation. Lancing is not often 
needed. 

For a general nervousness, the tepid bath night and morn- 
ing is an excellent sedative. Given just before putting the 
babe to bed, it insures a quiet night, almost certainly. 

A spasmodic attack known as "child crowing" comes on' 
during dentition, sometimes. Usually there are preliminary 
symptoms in the form of a peculiar croaking in the breathing 
for days previous ; again the spasm may occur without warn- 
ing. Certain muscles connected with breathing are arrested 
in their movements. The child becomes suddenly stiff, throws 
its head backwards with staring eyes and an alarmed expres- 
sion; the blood receding, the face becomes pale, then livid. 
Attacks of this nature, if severe, are attended with danger of 
sudden death. 

What is to be done must be done quickly. Apply a cloth 
wrung from hot water to the throat; hold a stimulant to the 
nostrils; as camphor, ammonia. If these are not effectual get 
the child into hot water as soon as possible. As the spasm 
passes off the breath is drawn with a crowing or hissing 
sound. 



S^& DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD, 

Children with tendencies to * 'child-crowing," or laryn^ 
gismus stridulus, as it is technically called, should be placed 
tinder medical supervision to prevent recurrence. 

General convulsions differ from child-crowing in there 
being spasmodic action of the voluntary muscles. The attacks 
are sudden; the child is observed to be suddenly stiff, hands 
clenched and breathing arrested temporarily; after a few 
seconds there are convulsive movements of legs, arms and 
face; the mouth is moved irregularly, the face is twitched in 
different directions; the eyes roll from side to side, the eye- 
lids wide open ; arms and legs twitch in a marked manner, the 
convulsive movements extending to fingers and toes. If the 
attack is due to the irritation of teething it will be of short 
duration. There are many causes for this disorder. 

The best treatment for immediate use is the hot full bath. 
If water is at hand, fill the bath-pan and place the child in 
without removing the clothing. Let it remain for five or ten 
minutes, then wrap up warmly and administer an enema of 
warm water. Often this is sufficient to produce a complete 
relaxation. 

If the convulsion occurs shortly after eating it would 
suggest something indigestible in the stomach, and vomiting 
should be induced as soon as the child is able to swallow. If 
possible, tickling the throat with a finger is a good method. 
Frequent recurrences of this disorder suggest some serious 
cause for the attack. Place the child at once in the care of a 
reliable medical practitioner. 

Colds — Cfoup^ 

When dentition does not proceed normally, and there is 
nervousness, slight causes are apt to produce severe conse- 
quences. Chill that might not affect at any other time may 
bring on colds, croup, bronchitis, etc. The tenderness of the 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. Zll 

gums may communicate itself to the nasal passage, to the 
windpipe and bronchial tubes, and through chill may cause 
a state of inflammation. The cold commences with dif- 
ficulty in breathing through the nose, acompanied by a 
watery or mucous discharge. This causes mouth-breathing 
and irritates the other breathing passages by lack of the 
warmth usually prepared by filtering in through the air pass- 
ages of the nose and face. Within a short time a croupy cough 
develops. About this time spasmodic croup is apt to occur 
through the night. The child upon retiring may seem fairly 
well, but, within an hour or so after sleeping, will be awakened 
by apparent choking and a loud, ringing cough. While the 
attack is on it is frightful to witness, but is seldom fatal. 
If it lasts longer than a few minutes efforts must be made 
for relief. If it is possible, saturate the atmosphere of the 
room with steam. If the sleeping-room has no means of 
heating water, a small oil-stove is valuable to have at hand. 
Induce vomiting by means of syrup of ipecac, a teaspoonful 
every ten minutes; or by tickling the palate with the index 
finger. Vomiting assists to release the mucus which is closing 
the windpipe. Apply a compress wrung from either cold or 
hot water; cold seems more preferable for the reason that it 
will draw the heat of inflammation to itself; it will get warm 
and stay warm, while a hot compress will cool off. Renew 
the compress every hour until relief follows. If there has been 
any constipation the bowels should be cleansed with warm 
water. Dr. Keith says: "If warmly dressed and properly 
fed, the croup cannot 'catch' a child." 

Bronchiol Affection^ 

The bronchial affection is extension of the "cold," or in- 
flammation, to the bronchial tubes. The child must be con- 
fined in a room with an even temperature night and day 



S\9 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

until the attack is over. It must not be allowed to get cooler 
than 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Every inhalation of cold air 
aggravates the disorder. The use- of steam is valuable to 
soothe a cough. Each family in which the children are 
subject to coughs and colds should be provided with a vapor- 
izer. Open fires are best for the rooms in which bronchial 
patients are confined, as the air-tight stoves dry the air of 
the room and exhaust the oxygen. When the cough is severe 
and breathing impeded, apply a compress over the lungs and 
well up against the throat ; cover with a dry flannel. Or apply 
a poultice of corn meal into which a little red pepper has been 
thrown and scalded with hot water; or a mustard poultice. 
These are counterirritants, bringing inflammation to the 
surface. When the attack is not severe, rubbing the chest 
and back with a stimulating liniment, such as camphorated 
oil or ammonia and oil, will be sufficient. Keep the bowels 
freely open by means of enemas if there is no natural action. 
Water is not a foreign substance to the economy of the body 
and can almost always be used with safety. 

Summer Complaint — Qiolera Infontum. 

A prolonged diarrhea, sometimes known as summer com- 
plaint, causes great mortality among infants ; and often attacks 
occur during dentition, although not caused by that process. 
The symptoms are frequent watery movements from the 
bowels, which at first may be green, and then brown and 
frothy. Sometimes there is a fetid odor, sometimes a soapy 
smell; the latter indicates there has been no intestinal action 
beyond the duodenum, as it is there saponification of the food 
takes place. Sometimes the passages are mixed with mucus 
and undigested food. When there is nausea and vomiting 
the disease is cholera infantum, a malady of the entire diges- 
tive tract. 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 319 

Improper food and impure air, together with the enervating 
heat of summer, cause summer complaint. Bottle-fed babies 
are most susceptible to it. It is very difficult to find a prepared 
food that wholly agrees with an infant, and digestion is upset 
by experiments. After weaning-time many children are 
allowed to sit at the table with adults and be helped to what- 
ever is served. The digestion of a baby, or a two-year-old, 
is not capable of making use of an indiscriminate diet, and 
rich food is unsuitable except for active, vigorous adults who 
are much in the open air. 

Some children are prostrated at once by an attack of this 
nature, while others lose strength gradually. It is best to 
put them to bed whenever the movements begin to look sus- 
picious, especially if the head is hot and extremities cold. 
Quiet is absolutely necessary along with heat applied to the 
extremities to equalize the circulation ; apply cold compresses 
to the head and change frequently. The juice of fruits is 
excellent to allay both thirst and f everishness ; when this is 
given strain through a sieve to prevent any pulp from being 
part of it. The juice of blackberry is very good; babies that 
have held nothing on the stomach soon accept unsweetened 
blackberry juice. Orange and lemon juices are also very 
grateful. Little food can be appropriated when these attacks 
are on; what is given should be in liquid form, as solid sub- 
stance would have an irritating effect on the mucous lining 
of the alimentary canal. Milk, reduced one-thir4 by boiling 
water, may be a stand-by if relished. Administer regularly. 
Barley water, rice water, thin oatmeal gruel are good. Allow 
the barley or rice to soak for some time and then pour off the 
water for the invalid. 

If twenty-four hours' nursing, with quiet, in a well ven- 
tilated room, quenching thirst with pure water and fruit 



320 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOV. 

juice, and feeding liquid food, does not act for the better, send 
for your family physician. Do not let the patient get too 
exhausted before sending for skilled -attendance. But, unless 
the case has been too aggravated by unhygienic living, the 
above treatment ought to suffice, if given with care and con- 
scientious attention to the patient. 

Abscess of the Ean 

Abscess of the ear is occasionally to be met with during 
dentition. Sometimes it is so severe as to occasion convul- 
sions. A babe cannot make its distress known except by ges- 
tures and cries, and when this disorder is present it will cry 
and toss the head from side to side, raising a hand to the 
afflicted side. 

When this is suspected, relief may be had by plugging the 
auditory canal with a cotton pledget soaked with laudanum. 
The outside may then be covered by a hot compress. 

The painful stage of the abscess rarely lasts more than a 
day, disappearing when the pus begins to flow. 

Should convulsions occur, the treatment has been given 
heretofore. 

Infectious Diseases* 

There was a time when it was supposed every child must 
have chicken-pox, mumps, measles, whooping-cough and the 
like, and mothers would take their children into families so 
affected in order to inoculate them with the disease. But it 
is now known to be true that healthy bodies resist disease, 
and the doctrine of health is reverberating where sickness and 
disease once swayed. Of the progress of the medical pro- 
fession Dr. George F. Shrady said: "It now embraces 
biology, psychology and metaphysics, and is becoming more 
the work of prevention than the cure of diseased' 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 321 

The mother of children should preach and practice mod- 
eration in all things unless it be breathing fresh air ; and even 
in that there can be a kind of intoxication by breathing too 
much too long. It used to be customary to arouse the children 
of the family when the adults got up, and make them do half 
of the work, with the result that few arrived at healthy 
maturity. Studying causes, many of these adults have been 
bringing to light the precious gospel of health and happiness 
during childhood as the basis of serviceable and happy ma- 
turity. 

Try by all means at hand to make your children "sound 
in wind and limb," "healthy in body and mind," and they 
have within themselves power to resist disease. 

If^you have not been successful in so doing, following are 
some statements as to the common diseases of childhood, with 
their treatment: 

The infectious diseases are those which may be communi- 
cated from one person to another in books, clothing, food 
and other articles. They have a definite run, and have four 
distinct stages, which are the stage of incubation, or between 
receiving the infection and any active symptom of illness; 
the stage of invasion^ or the period between the symptom of 
illness and the eruption ; the stage of eruption, from the time 
the eruption appears until it disappears ; the stage of desquam- 
ation, or shedding the cuticle in the form of scales. 

Chicken-Pox. 

Chicken-pox is a mild disorder, rarely giving a child more 
inconvenience than a slight feeling of nausea or headache. 
The eruption appears in the form of small red spots unevenly 
distributed over the body; these rapidly change to watery 
vesicles surrounded by a pink ring. The vesicles are not of 
uniform size ; some are the size of a pin-head, others may be a 



323 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

quarter of an inch in diameter. The eruptive stage lasts three 
or four days, and is characterized by much itching. 

The child should partake of a mild, unstimulating diet, and 
have the bowels freely active; the itching may be allayed by 
warm baths and vaseline applied afterwards. 

It is most contagious in the last stage, when the scales are 
dropping, and can be carried away in the clothing of others. 

Measles* 

Measles is an eruptive disease very easily spread, because 
the contagion is strongest during the first, or incubation, 
stage, when people are least apt to guard against it. This 
stage lasts about twelve days, and only during the last two 
or three days is there a suggestion of cold with weak, watery 
eyes and stopped-up nose. Then there are headache, fever, sore 
throat, cough and catarrhal symptoms, generally accented. 
The eruption begins on the face near the roots of the hair, 
spreading downward, covering the whole body within twenty- 
four hours. The fever usually increases as the eruption comes 
out, and decreases with its disappearance. The catarrhal con- 
ditions also increase with the eruption. Care must be used 
in measles to prevent chill; if the blood is made to recede 
from the surface to the internal organs, bad complications 
will occur. But the sick-room should be well ventilated and 
have plenty of light. Sunshine and air are nature's disin- 
fectants. The room should be kept at a temperature be- 
tween sixty-five and seventy degrees, Fahrenheit, night and 
day. Let the patient have a simple diet of bread and butter, 
fruits and rice, with milk as a beverage, and plenty of water 
during the illness. Frequent spongings with tepid water 
are very grateful during the eruptive stage. Any complica- 
tions, such as difficult breathing, or increased feverishness,.' 
will call for medical skill. 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 323 
Scarlet Fever* 

Measles and scarlet fever have some points in common that 
sometimes cause one to be mistaken for the other. But there 
are differences enough that they may easily be known apart. 
As, for instance, in scarlet fever there is rarely any cough, 
in measles the cough is troublesome; in measles the eyes are 
watery and eyelids swollen, in scarlet fever the eyes are dry; 
in measles the eruption is rough to the touch, in scarlet fever 
it is not. There is a difference in the color, too, measles being 
of a raspberry hue, while scarlet fever is what its name im- 
plies. The rash in measles begins about the face, in scarlet 
fever on the chest. In the latter a white line is left for a few 
seconds after pressing a finger over the point of eruption. 

Both diseases are contagious throughout their duration, but 
measles is most so in the stage of incubation, while scarlet 
fever is most so during desquamation. Both vary in severity 
in individual cases, but scarlet fever, of all infectious diseases, 
is most apt to assume a severe form, and therefore should 
be under medical supervision. Perfect sanitation is imperative, 
and upon attentive, intelligent nursing under the physician's 
direction the child's life depends, while, to prevent a spread 
of the contagion, child and nurse must be isolated for about 
six weeks, or until the diseased cuticle has been replaced by 
firm, new skin. 

SmoII-Pox# 

Small-pox is in the class of eruptive fevers, but public san- 
itation takes hold of the disease so quickly, it is not necessary 
here to give any but distinguishing features. The period of 
incubation is about twelve days ; then, as in other fevers, there 
is chilliness, headache, dizziness, high temperature, and a 
very marked pain in the center of the back and loins. The lat- 



S24 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

cer, in connection with pain and tenderness in the stomach, and 
more or less nausea, would indicate small-pox. Especially so 
if there is epidemic small-pox. It. is contagious from the 
varioloid that results from vaccination sometimes. A severe 
case of small-pox was that of a young lady who slept with 
a school-girl sister who had been vaccinated under the com- 
pulsory vaccination law. The inoculation caused so severe 
a fever it .was communicated to the sister, who had small-pox. 
Varioloid is just as contagious as small-pox. It cannot be 
known at the beginning of the malady how severe it will be. 
It depends on the resisting powders of the individual. 

The stage of invasion lasts about three days, when the 
eruption begins to appear in the form of small, red pimples, 
which feel like shot under the skin. The face, neck and 
wrists are first covered, then the body, and finally the lower 
extremities. The pimples increase in size until about the 
eighth day, when suppuration begins. Scabs are then formed 
after another week, which, unless great care is used, leave 
marks or depressions over the skin. The fever commences 
to subside when the eruption begins. Before the eruption 
there is usually more or less delirium, so that a small-pox 
patient needs constant attendance. 

This being a very infectious disease, patients are always 
isolated and their clothing burned or disinfected. 

Mumps* 

Mumps and whooping-cough are two diseases which, while 
not eruptive, have a development similar to those that are. 
Mumps is a disease generated. Dr. Ruddock says, by peculiar 
conditions of the atmosphere which breed "a specific morbid 
miasm." It occurs most frequently in cold, damp weather. 
The stage of incubation is from eight to twenty-one days, 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD, ^^b 

during which time the patient has "that tired feeling." The 
stage of invasion begins with chill, headache, fever, and some- 
times nausea with vomiting. Local symptoms are manifested 
in pain and tenderness under the ear; the parotid salivary 
glands swell, and continue to be sore and painful for a week 
or more. Sometimes but one gland is affected at a time, some- 
times it leaves one and goes to the other, lengthening out the 
progress of the disease. In severe cases the whole face pre- 
sents a tightly swollen appearance, but the skin over the gland 
is rarely discolored. A great deal of discomfort is caused by 
the inability to eat without pain. It is infectious throughout 
the disease, but most so during the stage of incubation. 

No active treatment is needed unless by exposure or want 
of care the disease is transferred to the testicles of the male 
or to the breasts of the female. These glands should then 
be treated with compresses to allay fever. The diet must be 
plain, the bowels freely open, and the patient kept in an even 
temperature. Always, in any disease, there must be care ex- 
ercised as to perfect sanitation. 

Whooping-Cough. 

Whooping-cough (or Pertussis) resembles the foregoing 
diseases in having distinct stages of incubation and invasion. 
The former is from a week to two weeks, and in the latter 
days expresses itself in the symptoms of a common cold; the 
stage of incubation begins with fever, loss of appetite, fretful- 
ness, etc. Cough is usually present from the beginning of 
invasion, and from that gains in severity. The spasmodic 
attacks of the cough occur with varying frequency, from 
three or four attacks during the twenty-four hours to an 
attack every hour of the twenty-four. Each paroxysm con- 
sists of a number of sudden, violent, short expiratory efforts. 



226 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD,. 

that the patient seems on the point of suffocation; then the 
deep-drawn inspiration assumes the sound of a whoop, which 
assures the temporary safety of the suffering one from loss 
of breath. The thick, ropy expectoration differs from the 
ordinary cough, and may signify the disease even though no 
"whoop" is heard. There is a gradual lessening of the num- 
ber of paroxysms until the cough is entirely gone. Recovery 
depends more or less upon the climate and season of the year. 
If there are no complications, ordinarily the disease will be 
over in from four to six weeks. Weather being damp or 
stormy and the patient confined, the cough may be persistent. 
The following is excellent to relieve the cough : 

Take one lemon and slice thin; add half-pint flaxseed, two 
ounces of honey, one quart water. 

Put on the stove and let simmer for four hours, but not boil. 
When cool, strain and add water enough to make a pint of 
liquid. Give a tablespoonful four times daily, and also after 
each severe paroxysm of the cough. It helps in the majority 
of cases, especially where care is used to perfect sanitation 
and to keeping the bowels open. 

Complications most likely to occur in whooping-cough are 
inflammation of the lungs, including bronchitis, convulsions 
and bleeding at the nose. 

To arrest excessive bleeding at the nose, let the child lie flat 
upon the back with head elevated. Apply cold water or ice 
to the forehead. In obstinate cases powder of gum Arabic 
blown into the nostrils with a quill will stop the discharge. 

Bronchitis^ 

Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchial tubes. It is in* 
dicated at first by a dry, resonant cough, which may be accom- 
panied by a wheezing. When it has existed for a day or two 
the cough becomes softer and looser, and the wheezing is 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 327 

succeeded by moist gurgling sounds. Breathing is more dif- 
ficult lying down. The expectoration at first is trans- 
parent mucus, which becomes yellowish and more fluid-like 
as recovery approaches. 

Small children very seldom know how to expectorate, and 
the swallowing of mucus may cause some derangement of the 
digestive tract. 

Bathing the chest and back with a stimulating liniment 
helps to overcome the inflammation. If severe, apply poultices 
to the chest and back. After the poultices have been removed 
protect the lungs, front and back with flannel or cotton bat- 
ting. 

The most important remedial agent in treating bronchitis 
is to preserve an even temperature in the sick-room. The 
steam kettle is often advisable also. 

Diphtheria — Tonsilitis* 

Diphtheria is a disease always of serious import, so in- 
fectious in character that the patient ought immediately to 
be isolated with the nurse. It begins to be noticeable by 
chills, fever, quick pulse, husky voice, inflamed throat, and 
sometimes vomiting and diarrhea. Where there is bad sani- 
tation is the place where diphtheria will devastate. The local 
characteristic of this malady is a dry, swollen throat, sooner 
or later covered with glistening white patches. The mem- 
brane changes color as the disease progresses, to yellow, to 
gray, and even to black. 

Tonsilitis is a disease for which diphtheria is mistaken 
sometimes. Upon examination the tonsils will be seen to be 
enlarged ; very commonly the surfaces are dotted with white 
points, though occasionally spread over the tonsils. But this 
is limited to the tonsils, and can be removed by scraping with 



328 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 

the handle of a spoon. In diphtheria the patches may cover 
not only the tonsils, but also the roof of the mouth, the hang- 
ing palate and the pharynx, and can never be separated by 
scraping. 

Diphtheria always requires skilled attention. Tonsilitis 
may be relieved by compresses or poultices to the throat; 
gargle or spray the throat with a solution of borax in rasp- 
berry leaf infusion. Inhale the vapor from a hot infusion of 
bayberry bark and vinegar. Keep the bowels open. 

Membranous Croup. 

Membranous croup is said by some to bear a relation to 
diphtheria, the two diseases having a resemblance. This 
disease begins as a hoarse cold, and its progress is so slow 
that one often does not suspect it until it is too late to save 
the child. The croupy attack usually awakens the child in 
the night. He is frightened and restless and cannot lie down 
with comfort. There must be no dalliance. Send for your 
most trusted doctor at once. In the meantime try to induce 
vomiting to relieve of the smothering mucous membrane. 
Administer an infusion of pleurisy root, with ginger and lobe- 
lia added, every fifteen minutes till vomiting occurs. After 
vomiting give it every half-hour to maintain relaxation; if 
suffocation seems imminent mcrease the dose and the fre- 
quency of administering. Have the bowels move freely. Put 
hot applications to the feet if the extremities get cold. Fat 
babies are most susceptible to this scourge — this terror of 
mothers. 

The Mothe/s Medicine Chest. 

Every mother should have her medicine chest for emergency 
cases, keeping it safely locked from the busy, inquiring fingers 
of little Miss Peep or Paul Pry. A knowledge of the uses 



DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. 329 

of remedies which may be the "ounce of prevention" in saving 
a beloved Hfe is worth while cultivating. In the medicine 
chest should be arnica, camphor, vaseline, ground mustard, 
ground flaxseed, turpentine, adhesive plaster, a roll of band- 
age not wider than two inches, a pair of scissors, etc. 

External applications are of much value and can be used 
with safety and benefit when one would not (and should not) 
trust one's self to administer internal medication. The diges- 
tive apparatus must be guarded against derangement, for upon 
it the whole body depends for nourishment. Mothers and 
nurses should be very chary of the "give-some-medicine" 
hobby in slight ailments. 

External applications have four purposes. First, to in- 
crease or diminish the temperature of the body; second, the 
maintenance of moisture; third, counterirritation ; fourth, ab- 
sorption of medication. 

The first is accomplished by means of hot-water bottles or 
bags of ice; the second by means of compresses, which are 
prepared by folds of cotton or linen dipped in water. These 
should be covered by dry cloths ; or better, by a piece of oiled 
silk, which retains the moisture better. 

Counterirritation relieves internal congestion by diverting 
a portion of the blood supply. Mustard plasters and stimulat- 
ing liniments are most commonly in use. A general rule for 
the application of a counterirritant is, the greater amount of 
surface covered the less amount of irritation should be set 
up. A mild mustard plaster, or a cornmeal and capsicum 
poultice, may be applied to the back and chest in inflammation 
of the chest, while a very strong one may be used for a pleurisy 
pain, or over a small portion of the skin. 

Generallv two of the objects for which external applications 



330 DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD, 

are used may be accomplished by a poultice which furnishes 
both heat and moisture. 

A fountain syringe and hot-water 4)ottle are important ad- 
juncts to maintaining the health of the family. These, in 
connection with the bath used intelligently and perfect sani- 
tation, will overcome the minor ailments and largely assist 
in curing those of a serious nature. 



n 



PART III, 




CHAPTER VIII. 

Afflictions Peculiar to Women. 

'HE generative system of womankind is not pe- 
culiarly sensitive and prone to derangement, as one 
would think upon superficial consideration. That 
so few women are free from "female weakness" is 
due to ignorance of the special anatomy and physiology 
of their nature. Through the lack of correct informa- 
tion the body, is misused and abused, and no part of 
it more so than the sexual system, through the oldtime theory 
of its degradation, as if the First Great Cause would select a 
medium of impurity to multiply and replenish the earth. 
Health and morals will be without self-support so long as the 
generative system has been disregarded, for it, in its true con- 
ception, is the basis of purity — of physical, mental and spiritual 
health. ^ 

The foundations for female afflictions occur in girlhood very 
often, through dress, immoderation in exercise or lack of ex- 
ercise, and the secret bad habit known as self-abuse or mastur- 
bation. Corsets, tight dresses and heavy skirts curse a large 
majority of womankind, not only in youth, but in maturity 
as well, for the reason that they are ignorant of cause and 
effect. The ignorance prevents any degree of self-reliance, so 
that for mental ease they must follow the fashion, be it what 
it may. 

^31 



8S2 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 

The followers of Madame Grundy, after several years' de- 
votion, become unsexed. That is, the pressure upon the vital 
parts, including the generative system, prevents free circula- 
tion of the blood, which carries vitality to all parts of the 
body. This constant loss to any organ weakens and in time 
makes it useless. 

Effects of the Corset. 

A writer to Physical Culture says : "At thirteen or four- 
teen the corset begins its stifling and demoralizing influence 
physically, mentally and morally. It crushes in on the great 
vital center at the waistline ; it crushes down on the organs of 
sex, displacing, weakening and deforming. This great 
nervous center, that depends upon the use of the muscular 
system at this part of the body for growth, strength and the 
perfect working of its functions, practically lies there in an 
abnormal, inactive state. The bones of the corset prevent 
the body from bending at the waist ; hence these muscles and 
the entire abdominal region gradually deteriorate in vigor. 

"With the organs of sex thus surrounded by weakened, 
flaccid muscles, in which the blood barely circulates, can one 
expect girls to develop that power and instinct of sex which 
is as much a part of true womanhood as light is a part of day? 
It is the instinct which gives them clear, definite ideas in the 
selection of husbands. It is the instinct that protects her 
and the man she marries from excesses that degrade, demor- 
alize, and at times destroy." 

Heolthful Dress — Exercise* 

Healthful dress is not incompatible with beauty, as any 
who knows can testify, and street and visiting gowns can even 
follow the prevailing mode to a given. extent. A woman who 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 333 

has defects will, of course, upon adopting rational dress, try 
to develop her body where it is lacking. She whose waist 
has been compressed cannot stand or walk as gracefully as 
the unhampered woman, but no one is ever too old to learn, 
if the mind is fully determined. 

Moderation in recreation and labor will guard against the 
evils which result from inactivity or overexertion. While 
actively exercising let the muscles of the body be without re- 
strictions, so that full, deep breathing is possible. Waist 
breathing is natural breathing, the principle being the same 
as in a pair of bellows. The floating ribs are lifted, the air 
inflates the lungs and expands the waist ; the ribs are lowered, 
the diaphragm becomes concave, and the air is forced out of 
the lungs. Conscious breathing develops lung capacity when 
the waist is free from restrictions. 

The destruction of health that comes from self-abuse is 
usually combined with the corset habit, together laying dread- 
ful waste. A young woman who, can use her reason against 
the evils of conventional dress is pretty sure to save herself 
from other evils because of innate tendency toward perfect- 
ing herself. 

Pure Thougfht, Activity and Knowledgfc* 

To prevent self-abuse the mind must be filled with pure 
thoughts, which will crowd out the darkness of ignorance. 
Then the voice of passion must be recognized as a prompting 
to activity and the whole being kept busy. Idleness begets 
sensuousness, and sensuousness in turn robs one of the ability 
to do. 

Dr. Mary Wood- Allen says: "The youth entering upon 
puberty might have explained to him some of the mysteries 



331 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 

of life; probably it would not be incompatible with his age 
to explain to him that the life of the animal or vegetable 
kingdoms is continued through the -power of reproduction 
with which the Creator endowed the whole produce of the 
earth. This power of reproduction or generation constitutes 
the very essence of life. To enable this vital function to be 
fulfilled every plant and every animal is furnished with organs 
of reproduction. As it has organs of respiration for breath- 
ing the air, organs of motion, organs of digestion for assimi- 
lating its food, so it has organs of reproduction for handing 
on the life it has received and reproducing itself in its off- 
spring. This is the most important function of the whole 
vital economy of every living form." 

Dr. Cordelia Green says : *The procreative organs are so 
arranged in both sexes that through the medium of the sym- 
pathetic division of the nervous system the brain and spinal 
cord — in fact, every element of soul and body — are in direct 
communication with them. With mental or physical excita- 
tion there is great exaltation of the action in the brain and 
spinal cord, with congestion of the procreative as well as the 
nervous centers. Next follows the movement downward to 
the pelvis of all the creative force, and the vital energy which 
is the source and sustainer of all human activities is given 
off and lost. 

''Disturbing brain influence is kept up quite as (Certainly 
by the states of thought and feeling as in any other way, and 
may become so constant as to produce the most exhaustive 
drainage of the strength." 

To eradicate excitement of the procreative system, body and 
mind must be kept clean and active. Food must be pure, 
simple and nourishing; the body must be free and untram- 
meled. The difficulty of overcoming self-abuse is because 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 335 

of the exhaustion of will-power. But activity increases 
strength because activity is natural. When idleness is known 
to be dangerous as the cause of the abnormal appetite of pas- 
sion, and healthful action made a habit, cure will soon be 
effected. 

The disorders commonly known as female complaints are 
inflammations, ulcerations, abscesses, tumors, dropsy, cancer, 
catarrh, etc., which afflict the generative organs when they 
lose vigor from any cause; in addition to these are the dis- 
placements of the uterus. 

The Causes of "Womon's Ailments* 

The causes of these disorders are many, but the chiefest 
of all will be found to be errors in dress, overexertion, or too 
frequent intercourse after marriage, which may or may not 
result in frequent child-bearing, miscarriage or abortion. Of 
the latter Dr. Stockham says: "It is the undesired and un- 
designed maternity that is revolting to the nature of woman. 
As long as men feel that they have a right to indulgence of 
the passions under law, no matter what the circumstances, 
what the condition of the wife, or the probabilities of ma- 
ternity, so long will the spirit of rebellion take possession of 
women and the temptation enter their souls to relieve them- 
selves of this unsought burden." And Dr. Delos F. Wilcox 
says : "What is to be said for the man who, for the sake of 
his individual satisfaction, or even for the sake of some slight 
increment of health, would pile his burdens upon the back of 
a woman already loaded down with the pains and dangers of 
menstruation, pregnancy and child-bearing? What is to be 
said of the young fellow who has wasted himself until, to 
alleviate his condition, he marries a healthy girl to shift upon 



336 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 

her and a family of children as much as he can of the penalties 
of his indiscretion ? What is to be said of the rugged husband 
who, for the sake of his 'health/ compels his wife to choose 
between chronic pregnancy and the discomforts, dangers and 
moral deadening attendant upon abortion and the use of ex- 
pedients to prevent conception ? The doctrine of man's *neces- 
sity' was born of sensual indulgence, and is perpetuated by 
self-deception and overweening selfishness." 

There is another affliction, too, that comes from husbands 
who have indulged in indiscriminate intercourse. Many so- 
called womb disorders are but the result of impurity brought 
by husbands to wives whose amativeness cannot satisfy the 
demands made upon them. 

Dr. W. P. Gray, writing to The Medical Brief, says: "I 
can never treat a case of syphilis, whether of recent or con- 
stitutional form, without feelings of horror and regret. If 
the disease could be confined to the real guilty violator of the 
sexual laws of chastity it would not have such a destructive 
and contaminating influence on innocent motherhood and 
offspring. 

'T know a beautiful young woman, as pure as gold, who 
was wooed and won to the companionship of a syphilitic hus- 
band, only to give birth to a blasted child; both mother and 
child finally succumbed to this terrible disease of rottenness 
and filth. 

" * * * Why not require physicians to register such 
cases the same as any other contagious disease by contact or 
exposure? 

"Even castration by law would not be too severe a punish- 
ment to such diseased persons Avho would marry other and 
innocent persons to spread and contaminate them with this 
loathsome disease." 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 337 

Like should mate with Hke. An impure woman should 
not impose upon a pure man; vice versa. The status in the 
mind of each can be determined before marriage by follow- 
ing the suggestion of Delos F. Wilcox,. Ph. D., who says : 
''No marriage has the promise of success unless the lovers are 
so conscious of the responsibility of the relation and so trustful 
of each other as to be willing to ignore the barriers of so- 
called propriety and reach an explicit understanding regard- 
ing the relations which shall obtain between them after mar- 
riage. The frank discussion of the sex-life and the duties of 
parenthood forms only the bare essential of the -free com- 
munications of courtship." 

Of course, the relation cannot be entirely understood before 
marriage, but all possible light on the laws of nature (which 
are the laws of God) will prevent a ruinous exhaustion of 
their life-forces in the bonds of wedlock. 

Lcticorrhea. 

A very common ailment of women is that known as leucor- 
rhea, whites, or catarrh of the uterus or vagina. In health the 
mucous membrane of the uterus and vagina is always kept 
moist by its own secretion. When this mucous fluid is se- 
creted in too great quantities it is the condition called 
leucorrhea. The discharge presents various shades and con- 
sistency. Physicians are able to tell from the nature of the 
discharge whether it comes from the vagina or uterus. When 
from the vagina it is generally a light creamy-looking fluid; 
that from the neck of the uterus is a tenacious, albuminous 
fluid and rather copious; from the lining membrane of the 
uterus the discharge is of an alkaline reaction, profuse, and 
generally precedes and follows menstruation ; in ulceration of 



338 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 

the mouth of the womb the discharge is profuse and semi- 
purulent. The disease is not usually accompanied by pain, 
but is never long-continued without, producing derangement 
of the general health through exhaustion. The constant drain 
will, if not checked, result in nervous irritability, hysteria, dif- 
ficult respiration, uterine derangement, and even consumption. 

Greatest attention to cleanliness must be observed. Every 
young woman who has had a menstrual flow should be taught 
the use of the vaginal tube of the syringe. A syringe is as 
necessary an article of the toilet as soap, towels, combs and 
brushes. If it is "against nature" to use the syringe, the 
same argument holds in the use of the other articles human- 
kind has invented according to its needs. 

Mr. Edward B. Warman, in the Ladies^ Home Journal, 
said: "Internal baths when properly taken are often more 
essential than external baths. The four avenues of elimina- 
tion must remain unobstructed if perfect health is to be ob- 
tained or retained." 

The vaginal douche should be a part of the daily bath, and 
flushing the colon should occur twice or three times a week 
before retiring. The odor of the bowel passages should be an 
argument to persons of ordinary intelligence for giving the 
lower bowel a regular bath. As a prophylactic no one item 
of care of the person will tell more strongly for health. 

For the cure of leucorrhea hygienic regulations must be 
observed. If 'the urine is scalding, drink flaxseed tea or an 
infusion of marshmallow root. As a vaginal injection use 
twice a day one ounce of the following in a pint of lukewarm 
water : 

White fluid hydrastics, 2 ounces. 

Borax, I/2 ounce. 

Distilled witch hazel extract, i pint. 



'AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 339 

Inflammation may affect any or all parts of the generative 
system ; it is the more serious when all are involved, of course. 
It is ovaritis when the ovaries are inflamed ; salpingitis when 
the Fallopian tubes are inflamed; metritis when the 
uterus is wholly inflamed; vaginitis when the vagina is 
inflamed. The disorder is the same in greater or less degree, 
and the symptoms are much the same, varying only in loca- 
tion. There are stinging, burning sensations, sometimes sharp 
flitting pains, a swelling and tenderness of the affected part; 
chill, followed by fever, may be the first symptom of the ail- 
ment, and headache a constant attendant. When any degree 
of inflammation becomes chronic the nervous system is more 
or less deranged in sympathy. 

Severe cases will call for medical attendance, as there are 
dangers from complications. Mild cases are relieved by first 
flushing the colon. The lower bowel should first be emptied 
of the impacted faeces ; then the colon be filled with hot water. 
This relieves the congestion on three sides of the generative 
system. (Notice the position of the ascending, transverse 
and descending sections of the colon.) It should be retained 
as long as possible. One quart of water may be retained at 
first ; at other treatments the quantity may be increased. 

Quietude in bed is essential; apply a stimulating liniment 
over the abdomen and use a hot-water bottle to the feet. This 
equalizes the circulation. 

Where the vaginal canal is inflamed, as it may be from too 
frequent or too violent intercourse, or from the use of pessa- 
ries, the hot water injections must be used to the vagina. A 
continuous stream of hot water will drive the blood from the 
parts and for the time relieve the inflammation. Remove the 
cause, cleanse the bowels regularly, and if the vaginal dis- 



840 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 

charge is offensive add a few drops of myrrh to the vaginal 
injection, which should be used at least twice daily. 

Displocemcnt of the Uterus. 

Displacements of the uterus are rather tedious to cure, but 
the chief ingredient to that end is a sincere desire of the suf- 
ferer to be cured. There is no remedy taken internally that 
will cure displacements. Rest and a simple diet, with exer- 
cises for strengthening the abdominal muscles, are the means 
of cure. 

The different uterine displacements are known as prolapsus, 
retroversion, anteversion, and the flexions, or where the uterus 
bends upon itself. 

The uterus is supported by eight ligaments and by the mus- 
cular strength of the vaginal walls. When all of these sup- 
ports yield there is prolapsus or falling of the womb, when 
the organ descends into the vagina, and often through the 
valva, and becomes external. The relaxation of the uterine 
supports is, of course, due to debility from some cause. Often 
the cause is found to be in a too early^ getting up after tedious 
or severe labor, when the parts have been very much weakened 
or lacerated. 

The cure will consist in occupying at night a bed elevated 
at the foot at least eight inches higher than the- head. Rest 
during the day at least an hour in the morning and an hour in 
the afternoon, with the feet and hips elevated. This may be 
effected by placing an inverted chair upon the bed or lounge, 
making it comfortable by means of padding with pillows or 
bed covers. This uses the law of gravitation to replace the 
uterus. Avoid any heavy labor when upon the feet. While 
in the lying position practice waist breathing, as by that means 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 341 

the abdomial muscles are exercised. Dr. G. R. Taylor, treat- 
ing upon this subject, says: "Increase the pump-like action 
of the chest, and it will be found that the displaced pelvic 
viscera will return to their normal position." 

Is it necessary to remmd any woman who has suffered from 
falling of the womb not to wear corsets, heavy skirts, etc., to 
press the viscera out of position again? One who wants to 
be cured and stay cured will not repeat the aggravating 
causes. 

Astringent vaginal washes assist in restoring tone to the 
vaginal muscles, and are much used in the treatment of this 
disorder. The following is good: Use as an injection twice 
daily a pint of tepid water in which has been dissolved one 
and a half teaspoonfuls of powdered alum. Always in using 
medicated washes the parts should first be cleansed of un- 
healthy discharges. 

In retroversion the uterus is turned or bent backwards; 
pain resulting from this, displacement will be a prolonged 
and sickening ache in the lower part of the back. The posi- 
tion of the uterus will aggravate any tendency to constipa- 
tion. Here the flushing treatment will be especially valuable 
in that it cleanses the colon, and by the dilation of its walls 
with water tends to push the uterus back to position. The 
chest-and-knee position favors a return of the organ to place. 
The patient kneels upon the knees and chest so that the hips 
are highest. When the organ is returned to position she 
must then practice the same methods as for curing pro- 
lapsus. 

In anteversion the body of the uterus is thrown forward 
against the bladder. There is a sense of fullness in the pelvis, 
of weight and bearing down, accompanied by pain in the 
rectum and perineum ; frequent desire to pass water, and partial 



84a AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 

inability to do so. The uterus can be returned to position 
by resting upon the back with hips elevated, and by using the 
same treatment as for prolapsus. 

In any female disease the return to health is greatly as- 
sisted by cheerfulness, mental activity, deep breathing, bath- 
ing and friction of the skin, and the internal bath. 

Ulccfotiom 

Ulceration is usually to be seen at the neck of the uterus 
or on the lining membrane, and is induced by impurity of the 
blood determining to a weakly uterus. It may be of scrofu- 
lous or syphilitic origin, or other less virulent impurity may 
induce it. It is attended with an offensive discharge, and 
there is much stinging pain in that region. Inflammation 
always attends ulceration, so the treatment is as in that dis- 
order. The impurity in the blood may be assisted out of the 
body through vapor baths, pure food without stimulating 
drinks, flushing the colon, and by taking a blood purifier such 
as the following: 

Yellow dock, J^ pound. 
Bittersweet bark, y^ pound. 
Figwort, 2 ounces. 
American ivy bark, 2 ounces. 

Grind together and macerate for forty-eight hours in one 
pint each of alcohol and water. Strain and sugar to make two 
quarts. Dose — One or two teaspoonfuls after meals. 

Ulceration of the womb may lead to cancer, which is a 
malady hard to overcome. 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN. 848 

Intercourse should be avoided. Disease may be imparted 
to the male, and excitation is bad for the female suffering 
from this complaint. 

Abscesses, tumors, dropsy and cancer will require skilled 
treatment. 



The Menopouse, or ''Chongfe of Life^^ 

Any disease of whatever nature can be greatly modified by 
hygienic regulations, by keeping the four eliminative processes 
active, by free, untrammeled dress, pure food, pure water and 
pure air in abundance. 

Women who have pinned their faith to the doctors and 
medicine alone will be found to be dragging through many 
years of invalidism, with physicians' fees preponderating. 

The best cure for any disorder is in its prevention. There- 
fore, be moderate in all things. 

The menopause cannot properly be classified as a disease 
any more than pregnancy or menstruation. It comes when 
the childbearing period is at an end.- One writer says: 
''Ordinarily all the sufferings and ailments incident to this 
period can be accounted for from some ovarious or uterine 
disease, dyspepsia, or other deviation from health. Irritation 
or congestion of the ovaries, more than any other cause, de- 
cides the numerous symptoms of the climacteric." 

The childbearing period lasts from thirty to thirty-five 
years normally. It is sometimes prolonged beyond that time, 
sometimes cut short. 

The beginning of the menopause is marked by irregularity 
in menstruation. The periods may be absent for severa! 
months, or there may be frequent and profuse flowing. In 



844 AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 

Some women these conditions alternate. The irregularity con- 
tinues on an average of three years. Some of the pathological 
conditions of the change of life are hot flashes, chill, profuse 
perspiration, capricious appetite, heartburn, sleeplessness, pain 
at the base of the brain and down the spine. Uterine hem- 
orrhage sometimes occurs, and tumors, cancer, polypi, etc., are 
of more frequent occurrence than at any other period of life. 

Knowing that this is a critical period of life, women ap- 
proaching the menopause should prepare to give the body 
necessary attention, while not allowing the mind to dwell too 
continually upon self. The system should be fortified with 
nutritious food and the four eliminating avenues kept in ac- 
tivity. If internal cleansings have not been the rule, they 
should be begun and adhered to during the change. 

For hot flashes, heartburn and sleeplessness disordered di- 
gestion will be found to be the cause, in which case use the 
stomach bath every morning before eating. This consists of 
drinking a pint of water as hot as can be taken. Hot air 
baths are especially valuable during this period ; by this means 
the millions of pores of the skin will bear outward much im- 
purity which will cause painful manifestation if left in the 
system. Fleshy women can hardly use water too freely; thin 
persons should be more sparing. 

At puberty the ovaries enlarge ; so when menstruation ceases 
and the organs no longer have so much work to do they 
shrink and become small. The uterus diminishes in size, 
likewise the vagina and mammary glands. But a woman 
can be just as healthy at the menopause as she was at puberty, 
and be more sweet and feminine and more truly enjoy life 
than in girlhood. 

When menstruation is encouraged as long as possible, the 
tendency to uterine growths is materially lessened. It is 



AFFLICTIONS PECULIAR TO WOMEN, 345 

also preferable that there be little or no intercourse during the 
change, to avoid congestion of the parts. 

Sometimes the secretions from the uterus and vagina are 
acrid and cause external soreness, in which case a little borax 
or baking soda should be added to the water for vaginal irri- 
gation. A compress over the abdomen at night will reduce 
the temperature where there is congestion. 

Finally, keep your soul youthful by keeping abreast of the 
times and thinking and planning to be well. As Prentice 
Mulford says : "If you expect to grow old and keep in your 
mind an image or construction of yourself as old and de« 
crepit, you will assuredly be so." 



PART IV, 



HEALTH AND HYGIENE 



PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM A COMMON-SENSE 
SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 



** An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,'* 



34": 



PART IV, 




CHAPTER I. 
The Relation of Health to Beauty. 

VERY woman has the very natural desire to be 
attractive, and "how to become beautiful" is a 
question much discussed in books and magazines 
at present. While every woman may not have 
regular features or the special color of eyes and 
hair that she most admires, — she can have the beauty that per- 
fect health always brings, and it is to show you how to retain 
this precious possession that the following illustrations have 
been made. 

Every woman who buys a sewing machine thinks it quite 
worth her while to learn how to run it, so as to produce the 
best possible results. But how few women spend as much time 
studying their own bodies — these wonderful machines that 
have been given us, and that so easily get out of order when 
their owners do not give them proper care and attention. 

Good digestion and good circulation bring a beauty which 
does not fade, and a healthy mind and body are the true 
essentials of, and do more for a woman's happiness than any- 
thing else can. 

First, I want you to see where some of the most important 
organs of the body lie, and how easily their functions can be 
disturbed by tight lacing. 

In the frontispiece you will notice, the liver and stomach 
are underneath the ribs and somewhat protected by them from 
any undue pressure. The kidneys are just below and behind. 
Over to the right is the vermiform apnendix, which may cause 
so much trouble if at all crowded. 

To the left is a portion of the large intestine going down. 

348 



THE RELATION OF HE ALTH TO BEAUTV.UQ 

Yoii will notice it ends in the rectum after the turn low dowh 
on the left side. In front of the rectum is the uterus, and ii\ 
front of that is the bladder. All the other space is filled with 
the small intestine. The results of too tight lacing are clearly 
shown in Plate i. 

Compare this with the frontispiece and you will see quickly 
the disordered condition described in Plate i. Remember the 
organs have got to go somewhere, and whenever the waist is 
too small, some organs have to go up and some down and get 
wedged in together in such a way that they cannot act. 
Remember, besides these organs shown there are several feet 
of small intestine, which also wishes to have a little room. 

A woman who laces tightly cannot bear a healthy child, 
and her foolish belief that such a distorted figure as she man- 
ages to produce is beautiful, leads to much suffering. 

Exercise is the key to the situation, for no woman can walk 
well or become proficient in any of the present fashionable 
forms of exercise unless she dresses properly and allows her 
body plenty of freedom. I do not advocate slouchy dressing, 
for neatness and trimness need not mean harmful lacing. 

Constipation is one of the most common evils from which 
women suffer, and if allowed to continue it ruins any com- 
plexion. 

To be healthy, the bowels should move at least once a day, 
and regularity is one of the best safeguards against constipa- 
tion. Go to the closet at a certain time each day — say within 
half an hour after breakfast, and you can soon establish the 
habit of regularity, unless there is some cause which needs a 
physician's attention. The bowels soon accustom .themselves 
to continued doses of medicine and after a time will refuse to 
act without some purgative. The only safe procedure unless 
you act under the advice of a physician, is an enema. For this 
take a quart of warm water as near the temperature of the body 
as possible, add six or eight drops of glycerine and then make 
a soapsuds, ust?t£- any good clean soap, preferably, pure Castile. 
Lying" on left side is position in which to take an enema. 
Plate 2 shows the position and the various turns of the large 



350 THE RELATION OF HEALTH TO BEAUTY 

intestine after leaving the rectum, and a comparison of this 
with Plate 1 will show at once why an enema is more effect- 
ive in the reclining- position sug-g-ested than in the uprig-ht 
position usually assumed. The water cannot be forced far 
enough up in the bowels to be effectual unless the patient is 
in a reclining- position on the left side. The glycerine used, 
prevents the very delicate membrane lining the bowels from 
becoming irritated by the water. A glass of water regularly 
taken just before retiring and another before breakfast (hot 
water preferred) will aid much in curing constipation. 

Plate 3 shows you the pelvic cavity as if you were looking 
down on it from above with the organs in theii: normal con- 
dition, and giving you an idea of their relative positions. 
You will notice that the uterus — or womb, as it is often 
called — in its healthy state leans forward toward the blad- 
der, which is the natural position. It should not tip back. 

In the abnormal condition referred to the uterus is 
tipped back and lies against the rectum, thus partially 
closing the large intestine and forming one of the common 
causes of constipation as well as the source of the dreadful 
backaches that etch lines in so many women's faces. 

To elevate the uterus and keep it in its proper place, the 
knee and chest position, as it is called, is recommended by 
many good physicians. Get down on knees and chest, then 
inhale long, slow, deep breaths, exhaling as slowly. This 
breathing exercise in this position inflates the vagina and 
serves to ^ush the uterus up and forward into place. You 
cannot keep this position but one or two minutes at first, 
but gradually extend the time to three or four minutes. 
This treatment taken faithfully both night and morning 
will soon keep the organ in proper position. 

Plate 4 shows you a normal uterus, with its usual 
appendages. The Fallopian tubes branch off on each side, 
and with the Broad Ligaments hold the ovaries in , place. 
The Round Ligaments come out from the uterus and extend 
to the abdominal wall. The Round Ligaments hold the 




Plate 1 

A TIGHTLY CORSETED FIGURE. 
Showing the crowded condition and displacement of some of the important 

organs. 




-''%^.. 



Plate 2 

OUTLINE OF THE LARGE INTESTIlNE. 
Arrows show direction of water when takin^^ an enema. 




Plate 3 

SECTION OF BODY, LOOKING FROM ABOVE. 

Showing correct position and place of three important organs. 



/^ 






Plate 4 



NORMAL UTERUS, OR WOMB, WITH ITS APPENDAGES. 
F. T., Fallopian Tube. R. L., Round Ligament. 




THE RELATION OF HEALTH TO BEAUTY 351 

uterus over toward the front in its normal position. When 
the uterus drops back, these ligaments have to stretch out 
until the strain is severe. 

In conclusion I cannot urg-e too strong-ly the importance 
of cleanliness, and let me advise you in the words of the 
photog-rapher, "look pleasant." Cultivate a cheerful spirit, 
take such sensible care of your mind and body that they 
will be sound and healthy and the very best kind of beauty, 
the kind that lasts, will be yours and your offspring's. 

Ruth Blake. 



PART IV. 




CHAPTER II. 

Long Life Not a Secret 

HE length of life allotted to man, as mentioned in 
the Scriptures and usually accepted as estab- 
lished, is seventy years. But this is not irrevoca- 
ble, for few of the many born live to that age, 
and many live beyond. This particular age has only 
been hit upon as a sort of average; strictly it is not 
even that, as so many children die under five years of age. 
But it is the period which every healthily born, normal being 
should reach, if no violence befall him. Scientists, who measure 
longevity by the various epochs in our growth and decline, de- 
clare that a century is the normal duration of man's existence 
on earth. But really the length of life cannot as yet be esti- 
mated, for we do not know to what extent we may be able 
to preserve our powers, nor how much we may accomplish by 
using our universal life forces to renew our energies. As long 
as the waste of life does not exceed the renewing process, we 
may live and exercise all our faculties. With a good constitu- 
tion, no heritage of bad traits or weakness, an obedience to the 
laws of health and happiness, there is no need of placing a 
limit to the length of man's earthly existence. There should 
be time enough to develop one's capabilities, time enough to 
acquire a knowledge of earth's resources, time enough to ex- 
haust the range of 'earthly experiences. 

352 



LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 353 

Rational Methods of Living:* 

To be able to live a long, useful and happy life, one must 
jtudy rational methods of living. The best and most reason- 
able process of preserving strength and health should be made 
part of the general education. From trustworthy statistics it 
is ascertained that man, at the present time, reaches the zenith 
of his mental and physical powers between the ages of fifty- 
six and sixty-five. If he understands the laws of life he 
should not deteriorate for thirty or forty years. It is known, 
too, that he need not lose any mechanical skill or artistic abil- 
ity he may have acquired until long past the term of life which 
has been accorded him as his limit. 

Michael Angelo was still giving to the world samples of his 
finest w^ork at eighty-eight. Milton, lacking one sense by 
which men enrich their powers, did his best work at the age 
of fifty-seven, while Johnson manifested his highest abilities 
at seventy-two. In looking over the dates at which our great- 
est scientists and philosophers have achieved their best tasks, 
we see that they were at their height a long time past what is 
usually considered middle age. Darwin was sixty-two years 
old when his last, best work was finished ; Spencer, beyond the 
three score years and ten, was still the greatest philosopher 
the world has ever known; Gladstone, Bismarck and many 
another gladiator in the great sociological arena gave proof of 
their unfailing vigor after the four-score year-mark was at- 
tained. Leo XIII. at more than four score and ten was not 
only the efficient head of the Roman church, but a marvel of 
physical, mental and intellectual activity. The long active 
lives of these men prove that our faculties need not fail us 
with the flight of time. Simple living, high mental and moral 
aspirations, lively interest in and keen sympathy with the 
movements of humanity, will preserve the freshness and vital- 



354 LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 

ity of youth down to the last days of a well spent century. 
We waste too much energy in our younger days, need- 
lessly and uselessly. When men and women do not do this, 
they find that they possess a sufficient energy for emergen- 
cies even in advanced old age. Nearly all nervous waste is 
avoidable. Over-work, over-eating, dissipation, unnecessary 
exposures and insufficient nourishment wear out the vital 
forces and decrease the energies which ought to carry exist- 
ence further on. Idleness, inertness, lack of proper ambition, 
dull our faculties and leave us rusting away. Excessive ex- 
ercise apparently strengthens for the time, but generally does 
so at the expense of one's vitality. Trained athletes do not 
often reach the age of sixty, the nervous force being dimin- 
ished by too rigorous exercise in youth. 

During the civil war, observation proved that those sol- 
diers could best bear the hardships of war, such as exposure 
to cold and wet, fatigue, lack of sleep, hunger, etc., who had 
lived moderate lives, enjoyed some leisure, good food and 
comfortable surroundings. These were found among the 
middle classes, the denizens of cities and villages. Men raised 
on farms, men accustomed to hard labor from childhood, 
work-hands from mills and mines, for all their apparent ro- 
bustness, succumbed more quickly and in larger numbers to 
the privations of military life. Their stores of vital force 
had been impaired by the reckless drafts made upon them in 
earlier life. 

The foundation of a long and happy life must be laid at 
the beginning, indeed it should be based on the lines of several 
generations behind us, for a great deal depends on the physi- 
cal and mental attributes of our ancestors. We should, then, 
understand that we can economize our vital energies, and that 
the length and usefulness of our years are in our own keeping. 



LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 355 

If we study into the secrets of life, and are valiant and strong 
enough to thoroughly control our habits, our appetites and 
desires, if we determine to be more the master than the crea- 
ture of circumstances, we may govern the term of life as well 
as the manner of it. 

Nature and the "WilL 

It is wrong to be sick, ailing, inadequate for the activities 
of human existence. Much depends upon what we will to 
be, and on our will being in accordance with the laws of na- 
ture. Nature always resists disease, and goes about her work 
of healing as soon as conditions will permit. A calm, well 
balanced frame of mind, the needful rest, the right amount of 
nourishment, pure air and cleanliness will almost always in- 
sure speedy recovery if no organ of the body is seriously 
wasted or injured. Medicine alone does not cure. It may 
bring the organism into a condition wherein the healing pro- 
cess may proceed; it may banish the consciousness of pain 
which may be so intense as to interfere with the restoring 
work of Nature — though pain itself is an evidence of Nature's 
endeavors to cure — but it cannot do the work itself. The flow 
of life forces accomplishes that. 

We must learn to live naturally if we would make the most 
and best of ourselves. We should eat simple food — that 
which a normal appetite most desires — and we should eat in 
moderation, never greedily or hastily. We should sleep as 
much as nature seems to demand, and no more. We should 
breathe correctly, in a way which experience and observation 
prove are most conducive to health and strength — therefore 
most natural. We must labor and exercise enough each day to 
keep our living machinery in good order; we must keep our 
bodies clean; we must wear such clothing and live under such 



856 LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 

shelter as reason and experience convince us are best for our 
welfare. We must feel kindly toward all mankind, and we 
must dwell upon the most hopeful and promising aspects of 
our external conditions, keep cheerful and avoid all needless 
worry, anxiety, or feelings of anger, jealousy or revenge. 

An indulgence of acquired appetites or inherited abnormal 
tastes has a tendency to shorten life. But the natural, healthy 
man may satisfy his ordinary appetites as he will and feel 
no evil effects. A person starting out with a strong constitu- 
tion, living under favorable conditions, may live to a hearty 
old age and tell us that he has followed no special rules in 
eating, drinking, exercising and resting, but has trusted to the 
instinctive demands of his nature. Where nothing had ever 
come to pervert the appetites and desires, these could be de- 
pended upon. In a case of this kind, it would probably be 
discovered that the habits and mode of life were those which 
the combined wisdom of all the past and present pronounce 
helpful and natural. 

Those who have lived wholesome, natural lives for a num- 
ber of years, find, when the emergency arises, that they can 
endure a season of hardships better than one who has weak- 
ened his constitution either by ' over-indulgence or by over- 
work and insufficient or unwholesome food. Such a one can 
face the influence of an unhealthful climate, of poor food and 
unusual exertion, without being appalled. His reserved 
strength and vitality, especially If he brings a brave demeanor 
and a cheerful, determined mind to bear upon the situation, 
will carry him through any ordinary trial. The one who 
habitually lives according to Nature's laws, may, if he brings 
a peaceful, confident mind to the occasion, safely eat bad food 
or none, for a time, endure cold and wet and hard work, and 
suffer little or not at all. 



LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 357 

People do live under conditions which are startlingly un- 
favorable up to and past middle age. They astonish others 
by the great amount of work they perform, by the little sleep 
they take, by the coarse food upon which they manage to sub- 
sist ; they seem hardy and tough, but a sudden collapse is sure 
to come before the time allotted for a natural life. They have 
lived on their capital of health and strength, and suddenly 
they meet the appalling realization that they are bankrupt. 
They can make no assignment and begin over, for each indi- 
vidual possesses only his own portion of vital power. When 
once destroyed or wasted it cannot be restored. 

True it is that economic conditions at present do not allow 
men and women to live as they should. The majority of peo- 
ple work too hard and are forced to subsist on too little ; they 
have no means of cultivating their mental and moral natures ; 
they breathe poisoned air, and they cannot keep their clothes 
and their bodies clean. But in Nature's domain there is no real 
lack. She furnishes food in abundance in return for a little 
labor; she affords fresh, pure air, earth space, beauty, joy. 
Only through man's bad management is there an apparent lack 
of any of these things, for never has humanity pressed too 
closely upon her bounteous resources. Man can restore the 
equilibrium of demand and supply if he will. If the minds of 
the people everywhere will comprehend that each and every 
one has the right of access to Nature's gifts, and that such 
restoration must and shall be made, it will he done. How, this 
is not the time to try to tell. Thought force has accomplished 
all that civilization boasts of today. It can accomplish much 
more if directed right. 

Tuo much luxury and too little work are as bad as want and 
too much toil. The rich man or woman who has only to con- 
jure up a new sensation, new appetites to gratify, is no nearer 



358 LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 

health and true happiness than the toiler whose products he 
enjoys. The out-of-work man who is denied a chance to labor 
has even a better show, for he lives close to Nature, because 
he must. 

Making: the Best of Life. 

But every one can make the very best of his opportunities. 
He may believe that life is not so full of happiness that he 
cares to prolong it, but he should remember this : that while 
he lives he will enjoy more happiness and confer much more 
happiness on others if he is well and cheerful and in posses- 
sion of all his faculties unimpaired. There was once a time 
when it was considered commendable to be sick; it indicated 
delicacy, and called forth the active sympathies of friends to 
the extent that an invalid was quite a sovereign in a household. 
But we know today there is nothing honorable in being sick. 
Indeed it is something to be ashamed of ; for willingly or un- 
willingly, knowingly or ignorantly, some of Nature's laws 
have been broken, and one is paying the penalty. We have 
no right to inflict ourselves helpless, weak and despondent 
upon our fellow beings, if we can possibly avoid it. Still, if 
one must be ill, it does not better matters to pine and lament 
that one must be a burden. Receive the loving care of friends 
cheerfully and frankly, and epcourage them by your own 
lightheartedness in accepting the situation. The world is be- 
ginning to acknowledge that one's greatest happiness is found 
in what one bestows upon others, not in what one takes from 
them. And the good one can do, the happiness that may be 
conferred upon others, the peace we may ourselves know in 
the course of a long, active, wholesome life are incalculable. 
To live rationally, to preserve all the faculties at their best, 
down to the last, is worthy of one's best and highest en- 
deavors. 



LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET, 359 

The young are usually happy in their very inexperience. 
The vital forces pulse through their veins with the delightful 
spring of youth, and their spirits bound with eagerness and 
anticipations of the beautiful, untried world before them. The 
older people should find happiness in sympathizing with and 
sharing their pleasures; they should know how to direct and 
restrain amiably and agreeably, and to give them the benefits 
of their richer experience without autocratically reproaching 
them for their ignorance and heedless errors. A natural leader 
will be willingly followed, while a domineering ruler will 
arouse feelings of resentment and rebellion. One who is dog- 
matic in giving instructions concerning eating, drinking and 
physical exercise is seldom heeded. Courteous, kindly sug- 
gestions are wiser and more effectual. 

One may determine early in life to keep young in feeling, 
interests and sympathies, and if these resolutions are firmly ad- 
hered to, until the habit of cheerfulness is well established, 
others will never remember that he or she is growing old. 
Women have preserved their loveliness and attractiveness 
until past the age of eighty ; and men have drawn about them 
the brightest minds of their day, all eager to listen to the rich 
and lofty sentiments of well stored minds, until the last years 
of a century of useful life closed upon them. These enviable 
characters have ever been genial, simple in their tastes and 
habits, sympathetic, progressive. Their minds are never al- 
lowed to ossify, nor their bodies to decay. To show what 
women may be throughout a long, lovely life, we give this il- 
lustration : 

Jane Clermont, that beautiful woman beloved by Byron and 
adored by Shelley, died not far from ninety years of age. 
Her eyes, her figure, her color and teeth remained perfect, 
her abundant hair, whitened by the years, only made her the 



360 LONG LIFE NOT A SECRET. 

lovelier, and she was charming in her manners always. 
Throughout her long life she invariably ate sparingly, and 
only simple foods, and she went out every day; above all, she 
always maintained a keen interest in youthful persons, arid 
delighted in fresh and fine thoughts, whether they were ex- 
pressed in books or conversation. Indeed, she was to the very 
last a most fascinating companion for both the young and 
the mature. It never occurred to those about her that she was 
not as young as they. Her society was so eagerly sought that 
she was compelled to deny herself daily to an access of visitors 
who were anxious to enjoy her brilliant conversation, infec- 
tious laughter and graceful personality. She always reserved 
an hour in every day for solitude and absolute repose of mind 
and body. 



PART IV. 




CHAPTER III. 
*^ Breath is Life/' 

ND He breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life ; and man became a living soul." 

Breath is life. To breathe is to live, and all 
things that live breathe inwardly the great living 
forces of the universe, and outwardly the matter that 
has done its work and is sent back into the great reservoir 
of life to be renewed. The trees and plants take in the gra- 
cious air, the very earth breathes, and the ocean swells and 
subsides in rhythmic movements. To know how to breathe 
in the fullest sense is to be well and happy and strong. 

People who live close to Nature breathe more correctly and 
are less liable to disease than the civilized who have not 
learned that true enlightenment takes us back again to Na- 
ture's methods. The North American Indians habitually 
"keep their mouths shut," and are therefore among the hardi- 
est races in the world. They breathe deeply and £11 their 
lungs with every breath ; and health and strength flow in with 
the pure air they absorb. 

Correct Breathing: the Basis of Bodily Health* 

We possess a proper organ for breathing, and it should be 
used. The mouth was never intended for that purpose, and 
incalculable evils result from this misuse of it. It has been 
found that Nature provides an arrangement of fibers for 

361 



362 "BREATH IS LIFE." 

Straining the air before it is permitted to touch the sensitive 
linings of the head passages, throat and lungs. These fibers 
grow inward toward one another and prevent the entrance of 
the minute, invisible enemies to health which seek to find 
lodgement in our bodies. The natural warmth of the nose 
moderates the temperature of the air in cold weather, and is in 
every way so finely constructed for its purpose that in its 
proper use health and a long life may be secured with little aid 
from drugs or other outside props and supports. 

The people of the East believe they can solve the secrets of 
life and learn to control all matter by learning to breathe 
aright. The Yogi breathing is a part of a course of discipline 
by which the "adepts" attain their mastery over natural forces. 
Their peculiar breathing exercises are practiced daily; they 
can send the breath to any part of the body, and bring about 
such effects as they will. They believe that there is more in 
common air than a mere combination of oxygen, hydrogen 
and nitrogen ; that by rhythmical breathing one brings himself 
into harmonious vibrations with the higher powers, and the 
essence of life itself can be grasped. They can, by a long 
course of breathing exercises, banish sickness, sorrow, evil 
and despondency, and can control, in time, not only themselves, 
but matter and the forces by which matter is moved. A num- 
ber of people in this country have taken up the study and prac- 
tice of Yogi breathing, with, they claim, remarkable results. 

A prominent physician has written a large book on cor- 
rect breathing. He claims that on the manner of breathing 
depend not only our health, strength and happiness, but our 
morals, our spiritual growth, our powers of self-control, even 
the duration of life as far as we will to live. All the universe 
vibrates, and if we would be attuned to its higher forces, we 
must learn to vibrate, through breathing, harmoniously with 
their vibrations. " 



"BREATH IS LIFE." 363 

Whether true or not that all may be gained which the oc- 
cults claim, it can be demonstrated that correct breathing is the 
basis of healthy living. George Catlin, who spent thirty years 
among the North American Indians and knows probably more 
about the habits and customs of aboriginal tribes than any 
other man living, says that civilized man owes to his unnat- 
ural modes of breathing the readiness with which he contracts 
all kinds of contagious diseases. He has written a work enti- 
tled, ''Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Life." He says in 
this book that, ignorant as the squaw mother is of what con- 
stitutes the knowledge pertaining to civilization, she seems to 
know intuitively that the nose is a protection to the delicate 
inner passages, and should be used to breathe through. The 
first discipline of the little pappoose is to prevent the lazy 
drooping of the lips, and to compel it to breathe through the 
nostrils. She tips the head forward and covers the mouth 
w^hen the child is asleep, and gives him instructions as soon as 
he is old enough to understand. 

The majority of contagious diseases, as well as colds, ca- 
tarrh and malarial affections, may be avoided to a great ex- 
tent by keeping the mouth closed whenever it is necessary to 
inhale imxpure air. People should not talk in an atmosphere 
freighted with impurities, or when its temperature is very low. 
They should not only breathe through the nostrils, but should 
overcome any habit of allowing the lips to drop apart, for it 
allows a ready ingress for microbes or poisonous or foreign 
atoms which may be floating in the air, especially where dust 
is flying about. It affects the expression of the face, unpleas- 
antly suggesting ill-breeding or an intellectual lack of some 
kind. 

Breathing through the mouth is most dangerous at night 
when noxious gases most abound, and there is no sunlight tc 



3C4 "BREATH IS LIFE:* 

dispel them; cold is felt more keenly at that time and the 
dampness is more irritating. If the determined will is not 
sufficient to insure correct breathing through the hours of 
sleep, a pillow should be arranged so a~s to tip the head for- 
ward, or a bandage placed over the mouth. A thorough 
course of self-discipline may be necessary to fix the habit of 
correct breathing, especially if there is an inherited tendency, 
strengthened by custom, to breathe carelessly with the mouth 
open. But the effort will be well worth while for the added 
health, beauty and vitality acquired. It has been ascertained 
by the observation and experience of army and navy officers 
that men who habitually sleep with the mouth open are much 
more subject to contagious diseases than those who do not. 
Indeed, in one instance, where a man-of-war was stationed 
near a far-away coast, and the small-pox became epidemic, 
only the sailors who had never been trained to shut the lips in 
breathing succumbed to the disease. 

Correct Breathings 

Deep and regular breathing promotes good health, and is a 
strengthener for the weak. It expands the lungs and fills out 
the chest, while more oxygen and ozone are carried into the 
body. Short, gasping, uneven breaths are hurtful; they keep 
the nerves in a tumult, and keep up a discord in the system. 
The organism cannot adjust itself to spasmodic breathing, and 
the calm, confident poise so necessary to good health and 
happiness cannot be attained. Adepts in breathing attach 
great importance to regular respiration. 

By breathing slowly, evenly and deeply for twenty minutes 
or half an hour, when one feels the symptoms of a severe cold 
coming on, an attack of pleurisy, congestion of the lungs, 
or even pneumonia, may be entirely thrown off. One should 



"BREATH IS LIFE." 365 

Sit comfortably in a reclining chair, the shoulders well back, the 
hands folded in the lap, the muscles of the limbs wholly re- 
laxed ; one should then inhale deeply, slowly, through the nose, 
and exhale in the same manner, at regular intervals. The air 
should be as pure and fresh as it is possible to obtain, and not 
warmer or much colder than 68 degrees. The lungs will, by 
this exercise, be able to clear themselves of foreign matter, 
and the muscles of the chest regain their flexibility. This is 
one of Nature's remedies, and, w^hen her laws have not been 
too violently entrenched upon, is the best of cures. 

A fine exercise for the preservation of health and the gain- 
ing of additional vigor is to fill the lungs with fresh air every 
morning and evening in this manner : Stand erect, with the 
heels together and the toes pointing outward, the knees stiff 
and the arms hanging with inclosed hands close to the side. 
The shoulders should be thrown back as far as possible, the 
chin held up to stretch the neck, and the lips should be firmly 
closed. In this position, raise the body slowly upon the toes, 
inhaling deliberately ; maintain the attitude as long as it is not 
uncomfortable, then slowly sink and exhale the breath. Do 
this once more by standing on the right foot alone, then the 
left. This exercise includes but three long breaths, which are 
perhaps sufficient for beginners. As one grows more accus- 
tomed to it, the exercise may be repeated three or four times. 
An Indian might run a mile, or a denizen of the forest chop 
down a tree before breakfact, to obtain the same results, but 
the town and city resident, accustomed to sedentary pursuits, 
will find this sufficiently difficult at first. 

Many afflictions, not generally supposed to be connected 
with the manner of breathing, may be traced to bad habits 
in taking one's necessary oxygen, such as the bad formation 
and arrangement of teeth, their decay, facial neuralgia, etc. 



366 "BREATH IS LIFE." 

The gums, teeth and tongue become too dry during the hours 
of sleep if the mouth is kept open, and various diseases of 
those organs are brought on. 

Let us strive to secure pure, fresh, deep, regular breaths of 
air for each moment as it passes; then may we pray with a 
clear conscience for our "daily bread." For next in import- 
ance to breathing is the nourishment that sustains our bodies 
in the activities of daily life. Pure air and pure food and our 
rrianner of taking them are wonderfully significant in preserv- 
ing health and vitality. 



PART IV. 




^ 



CHAPTER IV. 
How, When and What to Eat. 

'OME eminent physicians have declared that the 
quaHty of food does not matter so much as the 
quantity and the manner of eating. One has 
said: "Even the widest selection of food is 
inoperative as a remedy for our bodily ills, without 
due care and deliberation in mastication, and also a proper 
mental mood for eating." Many people have become con- 
vinced in recent years that in general we eat too much. In 
this one particular we cannot take the natural man, the savage 
or the Indian, as a model ; for the more civilized and enlight- 
ened a man is in its true sense, the less is he likely to gor- 
mandize. 

The refined and cultured eat simply and sparingly, never of 
heavy, rich foods, though a class of fashionable, self-indulgent 
people may still consider it luxurious and proper to dine on 
elaborate, highly seasoned dishes to the point of gluttony. 
They have but gone back to the habits of primeval man, who 
gorged, when he might, until he could no longer move, and 
required his women to feed him. But this creature could fast 
for days, if it was necessary, and suffer no inconvenience. Nat- 
ural man would have acquired more rational methods of eat- 
ing had the supplies of food been constant and regular. But 
in the days when their fortunes in the chase or on fishing ex- 

367 



368 HO IV, IV HEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 

peditions must determine their supply of provisions their sys- 
tems were compelled to adapt themselves to the conditions; 
they learned to eat enormously when they had food, and to 
fast patiently when it could not be secured. 

Men of the middle ages, when the militant spirit was most 
dominant, were Httle better. In the long, terrible wars, when 
food was often a matter of chance, or depended upon the suc- 
cess or failure of armies, men ate, when the opportunity pre- 
sented itself, as long as anything remained. The literature 
of less than two hundred years ago gives us pictures of gigan- 
tic feasts where whole oxen, sheep, pigs, roasted to a turn 
and flanked by flagons of strong ale, adorned the table; we 
are told how men ate and drank until they fell to the floor to 
sleep away the effects of their gluttony. Indeed, but one or 
two generations ago the virtue of hospitality was to tempt the 
guest to eat to his fullest capacity, and the test of manliness 
was to be able to swallow anything and everything set before 
one. Only within the last century have moderation and 
method in eating been seriously taken up in a scientific man- 
ner. The tendency has been in the past, when disgust has 
sprung up from over-eating, to go to the other extreme and 
eat coarse and unpalatable foods in most abstemious quanti- 
ties. But this is as bad as too much indulgence. There is 
consistency in all things, and there must be a rational, logical 
theory of nourishment which can be reduced to a practical 
system. 

We might depend upon our normal appetites, only that the 
mixture of races, the complicated foods, the bad habits of an 
over-heated civilization, have deprived us of normal appe- 
tites. We can only judge by experience and observation after 
long years what kinds of food are best calculated to promote 
vigor and the normal action of all the organs. Even when we 



HOIV, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 369 

discover what is in general best adapted to human require- 
ments, we do not know what varieties suit different individ- 
uals, and this must be discovered by each for himself. Exper- 
iments should be made rationally, however, with the aid of 
such knowledge as has been gained by others, in regard to the 
effects of various foods and the peculiar elements needed by 
one's system. Age, occupation, inherited tendencies, temper- 
ament should be taken into account, or one's experiments may 
result in discomfort, shattered health and loss of vitality. 

Three Safe Rules m Eating:* 

Aside from the kinds of food to be eaten, there are three 
rules that can be safely adhered to by every one. 

One is not to eat too much — to cease eating before the feel- 
ing of being filled to repletion is reached. 

The second is to eat slowly, in a calm state of mind, and 
masticate every mouthful thoroughly. 

The third is never to eat and drink at the same time. Ani- 
mals do not drink when they eat, and our reason should guide 
us, if instinct does not. The desire to drink while eating 
comes from a hurried, nervous gulping of food. If one had 
all his life eaten deliberately, chewing so slowly that the nat- 
ural flow of saliva sufficiently moistened the tongue and 
throat and the food, he would probably never thirst for drink 
while eating ; but generations of perverted habits have changed 
the natural appetite, and it cannot now be depended on to al- 
ways direct aright. 

Even as it is, it is safer to trust to a child's appetite than 
to an unscientific mother's arbitrary decisions. Many house- 
wives consider discipline, or the carrying out of their own 
theories in regard to nourishment, more important than their 
children's taste. They provide what is most convenient to 



370 HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 

themselves or what they believe is best for their children, and, 
though their palates may rebel, the little ones are compelled to 
eat it. To force a child to eat food it does not want is cruel 
at the time and often results in irremediable consequences later 
on. It is wise to withhold certain things known to be injuri- 
ous, for the child can have no definite craving for something 
it has never tasted — only a 'general curiosity to experiment on 
whatever it sees. But it should never be forced to eat what is 
distasteful to it. Many children die young solely from the 
conscientious but unwise course of mothers ; others go through 
life with impaired constitutions, debarred forever from the 
enjoyments of good health. 

Variety in Food Desirable 

We have grown to be a complex people. We are the de- 
scendants of many different nationalities, each possessing dif- 
ferent tastes according to the climate, products and necessities 
of their country. Our own climate is variable, our products in- 
finite in kinds and quantities; we have developed capricious, 
discriminating tastes, and we do not thrive on any one diet, 
as dc, for instance, the eastern people, who can subsist on rice 
day in and day out all their lives. They wonder at us that we 
pander to our comprehensive tastes, and cite their own simple 
living and natural lives as examples of wisdom. But they 
forget that while in their country custom, climate and caste 
have fixed the taste in food for centuries, we are a mixture 
of nearly all the nations of the earth, inheriting their natural 
and cultivated tastes, while our commercial systems have 
brought the foodstuffs of the world to our own doors and bade 
us choose among them. We would no longer thrive on one 
or two articles of food, and experience and reason teach that 
variety in food enhances our welfare. 



HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 371 

Still it is possible to modify and simplify our diet, if it has 
been too rich, too complex or too heavy. Culinary art has 
heretofore run too much to decoration, and to toothsome del- 
icacies calculated to tempt satiated appetites. There are visi- 
ble signs that in the near future cooking will be studied as a 
science, and more regard will be paid to suitability, proper 
chemical changes, wholesomeness, than to richness, elabora- 
tion and the exciting of abnormal appetites. We will eat more 
simply when that time comes, but our tables will look more 
beautiful. For what is more artistic than the commingling 
of fruits in a natural state, nuts, crisp, tender vegetables, and 
light grain cakes formed from scientifically prepared flour ? 

But whatever changes we make must be made gradually and 
carefully. Sudden alterations may cause disturbances in the 
system difficult to overcome. The body, after having adapted 
itself to a certain diet, does not readily adjust its functions to 
an entirely new course. Each one must be guided by his own 
judgment and knowledge of his body's needs, not by what 
fashion or theories dictate. Corn-meal is liked and easily 
assimilated by some, while to others it is heating and indi- 
gestible. Graham has been considered wholesome, as it was 
thought to maintain a natural condition of the alimentary pas- 
sages. But this is a mistake. The fine edges of the grain cut 
lightly into the delicate surfaces of the viscera, causing a 
moisture to exude which facilitates the passage of digested 
and undigested food. So great are the healing properties of 
the natural forces that no injury seems to result for many 
years. But the damage manifests itself sooner or laten 

Vegfetarianism* 

Vegetarianism benefits some people, but it should not be 
insisted upon, for our minds are various and complex, and 



372 HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 

fruits and vegetables do not always furnish all that the sys- 
tem requires. The animals digest several varieties of vegeta- 
bles which we could not assimilate,_and their flesh contains 
the results of processes not possible to us. But all meat should 
be thoroughly masticated. The importance of this cannot be 
overestimated. Only when the digestive organs are worn out 
trying to pulverize tough flesh fibers, and it is too late, do 
many of us realize this. 

Never urge the appetite; follow its leadings as it is unper- 
verted. Take no "appetizers," and do not crowd the stomach. 
It is best, as a usual thing, to eat sparingly of sugar and 
candy. On account of the starch contained in bread, sedentary 
people should eat little of it. We should not chill our stom- 
achs with iced drinks or flush them with hot washes. And 
while we still adhere to the custom of putting into ourselves 
the conglomeration of foods we do, above all, let us masticate 
them well. We should not eat when excited, tired, nervous or 
angry. Wait until calm, even if we miss a meal or two, and 
good health and youthful vigor far into old age will be our 
reward. 

We eat to sustain life, and if we eat wisely, we will be 
healthy and live long. We must adapt our food to our age 
and occupation or calling, and to the temperament of our sys- 
tems. This may seem an indefinite bit of advice, but we each 
have an inborn instinct which will guide us in such matters, 
if we will allow ourselves to be guided. This infinite guiding 
instinct is true of botanic life as well as animal life. The little 
growing vine directs its course wisely and clings to the nearest 
support. We eat to live, and life is warmth, development and 
repair, and gives us the power of exertion and action. 



HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 373 

Food the Fuel of the Body* 

In all the countries under the sun, in youth or old age, the 
human body, when in a healthy state, maintains the same tern- 
perature, ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Food acts as a 
fuel to us, as the warmth of our bodies is derived from food. 
Sugars, starches and oil are concentrated forms of carbon- 
aceous food, and some of them are composed mainly of this 
element. Many persons are greatly concerned over the large 
amount of sweets devoured by young children, but without this 
element of food it is said that the healthiest infant would die 
in a short time. As we grow older we covet the meats and 
oils more. Who has not noticed the grandmother's fondness 
for a bit of the fat with her steak? It would be just as un- 
wise to deprive the old of the luxury of some nice bits of fat 
as to deny the child the sweets over which he makes himself 
a gourmand. As reason is the guide in these matters, this ac- 
counts for over-indulgence in children, and it is not the sweets 
which make them sick, but the indulgence to excess which 
makes the trouble. We should not eat by fixed rules or meas- 
ures, as this is not natural. We also eat for the generation of 
those internal forces of brain and body which constitute our 
efficiency as immortal beings. As food gives nourishment, 
and this includes warmth, growth and repair, and gives to 
the brain and body strength and power to work, we must learn 
that it is necessary for us to have different kinds of food, al- 
though milk, eggs, etc., have more than one element. 

Three things are essential to our daily^ food. These are 
carbon, to keep us warm; nitrogen, to give us strength and 
flesh; and salts, which combined with carbon and nitrogen 
make them nutritious. 

The power to perform bodily and mental labor must be sup- 



374 



HOW, WHEN, AND WHAT TO EAT. 



from its resemblance to the albumen, the white of an egg. 

The blood is made by foods containing albumen, and as 
the blood is life, foods which build it.up sustain us best. This 
is why bread is called the staff of life. Thus foods which 
contain a large amount of carbon would not build up the blood 
and strength and enable us to accomplish a great amount of 
labor. It is not always the size of a man that is to be taken 
into consideration when looking for a good strong laborer, but 
the size of his appetite is a very good criterion, for a man with 
a good appetite will be able to do a good day's work if not 
hindered by some bodily condition or infirmity. A good 
brain-worker should eat well, also, for, if debility of body sets 
in, the brain will consume itself because nutriment is not sup- 
plied to it fast enough through proper food and a healthy, 
vigorous digestion. 

The Rigfht Times for Eating:* 

It is best that all who wish to be healthy and prepared for 
their day's work should eat a hearty breakfast, that is, a break- 
fast of nourishing food. For instance, a man may eat a 
hearty breakfast and ride through a deadly marsh without 
harm, while if the man crossed the marsh without first eating 
his breakfast, he would likely die of some malignant fever 
within a short time. Food stimulates us as soon as it reaches 
the stomach, as it calls into activity the circulation of the 
blood, and in a short time the whole body receives and feels 
the strengthening influence. As the body cools down rapidly 
when food has not been taken for some time, the early break- 
fast in winter is especially healthy for old persons and chil- 
dren, as it is a promoter of health. If a person does not have 
an early breakfast in winter, it takes longer to raise the nat- 
ural heat of the body, and as no work can be accomplished to 



HOW, WHEN AND WHAT TO EAT. 375 

work can be accomplished to any purpose until this internal 
heat is brought up, the earlier the breakfast the better. 

As there is a "miasm" or impure element in the early morn- 
ing air, and this same element is present after sundown, pre- 
sumably the healthiest time to eat supper is shortly before sun- 
down. The healthiest dinner hour is at noon time, as the 
morning work brings an appetite at that hour, and a quantity 
of food taken at that time sustains the body for the afternoon 
work. 

As the stomach is composed of muscles it is called an organ 
or machine, and in a healthy condition performs the work of 
digestion, so far as it is concerned, in about five hours, so that 
most individuals will at least find it pleasant, if not convenient, 
to eat every five hours. 

As soon as the food is digested by the stomach, it passes out 
and leaves it empty for a time. _ In an hour or two, certain 
vessels connected with the stomach fill with a fluid, and as they 
distend they cause the sensation of hunger, which makes us 
wish to eat again. As soon as we partake of food, they empty 
their contents among the food, dissolving it and preparing it 
for nutrition. Thus it will be seen that if food is taken into 
the stomach before it is emptied, it will arrest the digestion of 
the first food taken, which remains in that condition until the 
last food taken in is brought to the same condition, when both 
go on together. If the food remains in the stomach too long 
it sours, on account of the high temperature of that organ, and 
this causes improper and imperfect nutrition. 



PART IV. 




sleep." 



CHAPTER V. 
Sleep and the Bath, 

'E live only in our waking moments, we imagine, 
and sleep has been called ''the twin sister of 
death." Yet life's activities would drag heavily 
were it not for ''Nature's sweet restorer, balmy 
In sleep we are "created anew day by day." 
But it is important that conditions for sleep be made fa- 
vorable, or sleep becomes an enemy which lays its victim help- 
less while poisonous vapors and disease germs get in their 
deadly work. We must sleep; or power wanes, courage ebbs 
away, and the mind becomes weak and confused. If one can- 
not sleep at all, insanity and death ensue. One will suffer more 
from loss of sleep, before relief comes by death, than from 
inanition. 

We cannot bestow too much care upon our preparation of 
sleeping-apartments. Too often the little corner that cannot 
be otherwise utilized will be dedicated to sleeping-rooms that 
cannot be flooded with light, swept by pure breezes, and 
warmed by the sun's health-giving rays. This is bad econ- 
omy, if one values good health. Exhalations from the body 
linger in the bed clothing until purified by plenty of oxygen. 

Proper Sleeping-Apartments. 

Bed-rooms should be light, airy, and not too small. They 
should be comfortably but not showily furnished. Only arti- 



SLEEP AND THE BATH. 



377 



cles of use should be permitted in sleeping-apartments; deco- 
rations should consist in the cleanliness and freshness of the 
appurtenances. Heavy drapery, tidies, nick-nacks which catch 
and hold the dust, are in better taste in other rooms. The 
walls should be of some soft, neutral tint, and such ornamenta- 
tion as is allowable should be quiet and simple, so as to be 
restful to the eye. Means of ventilation should be as perfect 
as possible, that proper respiration may be insured. 

It is more pernicious to keep a dark bed-room artificially 
lighted than to allow it to remain in the shadows. Gas-jets, 
candles or lamps consume the little pure air which finds its 
way into close rooms, and should be prohibited. They should 
be as little used at night as possible in all sorts of rooms, for 
the same reason. Gas-jets turned low are more harmful than 
when the blaze is turned on fully, since the poison inevitably 
escapes when burning low. A faint jet of light in a lamp will 
destroy all the oxygen in the air faster than will a full blaze. 
One should remember exactly where the lamp stands and keep 
a few matches at hand, rather than vitiate the air with the 
smoky wick of a low-turned lamp. 

A person with weak lungs should sleep in a large room, 
where currents of pure air may constantly sweep around, 
above and below the bed. A tent, or a roof without walls, is 
still better. In the pure air of the higher regions consump- 
tives sleep in the open air in hammocks swung among the pine 
trees, with great benefit. The open air is never hurtful if one is 
warmly wrapped in light and fleecy blankets. 

The clothing of the bed should be aired daily, and very fre- 
quently hung on a line in the sunshine. The filling of mat- 
tresses and pillows should be subjected to 150 degrees of heat, 
a temperature which will destroy all decaying substances, and 
not injure hair or feathers. Fresh air is a great disinfectant. 



378 SLEEP AND THE BATH. 



Plants without flowers have been recommended, because both 
in dayUght and darkness green vegetation throws off oxygen, 
and absorbs impurities and carbonic acid gas. Flowers and 
ripening fruits consume oxygen, and should not be brought 
into the room where an invalid or an infant is sleeping, nor 
should they long remain in a healthy person's sleeping-room. 

A bare hard-wood floor, with a few soft rugs placed where 
comfort or convenience demands, is much neater and more 
wholesome than thick carpets, which secrete dust and bad ex- 
halations. The rugs are easily shaken, the floors quickly 
washed off; and the housewife is not so afraid of letting in 
sunshine and fresh air if there are no curtains and tapestries 
to fade. Papered walls are not advisable, as they gather dust 
and impurities. A hard-finished wall from which the effects 
of flies and other insects can be washed is much better. 

Flannel sheets should be used in the winter, and even in 
the summer thin baby flannel or woolen batting is preferable to 
closely woven cotton or linen sheets. Flannel blankets for 
invalids, when the weather is cool, are better than quilts or 
cotton comforters. 

How Long: One Ougfht to Sleep. 

The time to be consumed in sleep varies in different people, 
but it seems that a third of the twenty-four hours of the day 
may be profitably passed in invigorating sleep. People live, 
work hard and appear to keep robust for many -years on less 
sleep than this, but they are more certain to break down young 
than those who sleep well their eight hours daily. Many boast 
of doing with five and six hours, but they do so with hollows 
sinking under their eyes and wrinkles tracing, telltale lines in 
the forehead. 

There was once an old author who wrote a large philosoph- 



1 



SLEEP AND THE BATH. 379 

ical (?) book on everything in the universe and some things 
that are not there at all, who upbraided people desperately 
for wasting so much time in sleep. He advised his readers to 
rise at four o'clock every morning and begin to study. If 
work were necessary, it might be done through the busy, 
noisy part of the day, but with the quiet of evening they were 
to commence their studies again and pursue them until 12 
o'clock at night. Thus, he said, one might snatch a third of 
a lifetime in the hours idly spent in sleep, to devote to the 
acquiring of wisdom. But hours thus stolen from those that 
Nature requires in which to repair the wastes going on in 
wakeful hours must some time be repaid. The end of life 
comes all the more quickly, when there will be no choice as 
to whether you will sleep or remain awake. 

When to Sleep* 

"Early to bed and early to rise," is no doubt a wise admoni- 
tion, or was in the day it was spoken, for artificial light was 
crude and scarce, there was no temptation to prolong the activ- 
ities of the day into the darkness of night, and people's consti- 
tutions were adapted to the natural division of the day. But 
the inventions of modern times, which afford the brilliancy of 
the day during the night, have lengthened the time of action. 
We have developed more social pleasure, and acquired a fac- 
ulty for working, studying, improving and enjoying until after 
daylight ends. Perhaps we have shortened our years by so 
doing, but it would be impossible, even if we would, to get 
away from, gas-jets and electric lights, back to the "tallow 
dips" of old times. Nor is it desirable, if we will yield some- 
thing to Nature's demands and resist the temptation to remain 
awake, using our brains and nerves until long after they rebel 
with weariness. If we will but sleep enough, Nature will for- 



380 SLEEP AND THE BATH. 

give our breaking of the old rule, perhaps, and adjust our sys- 
tems to suit the new conditions. 

We certainly ought not to curtail the hours of sleep at both 
ends of night, and if we will not retire early we ought not to 
force ourselves to rise too early. We feel in these modern 
days like repeating with John G. Saxe : 

" *God bless the man who first invented sleep !' 
So Sancho Panza said, and so I sing. 
But condemn with curses loud and deep 
The man who first invented early rising." 

But the earlier hours of the night are certainly best calcu- 
lated for sound and healthy slumber. We find ourselves more 
cheerful, amiable and better-looking when we can go to sleep 
early and wake with the birds. Late hours set up a kind of 
stimulated activity within us, and we find it difficult to fall 
into sleep directly upon retiring. We are wakeful, and grow 
"nervous" presently because we can not, and sleep is driven 
farther away than ever. Our muscles are at a high tension, 
and often the hands are clenched tightly and the teeth ground 
together. 

To induce sleep, rise from the bed and rub the body from 
the head downward with the open palms of the hands. Then 
lie down in an easy position, relaxing every muscle, and ban- 
ishing with determination every disturbance of mind. Breathe 
deeply, regularly and slowly through the nostrils, and picture 
a field of waving wheat or tall grass, rising and falling in soft, 
billowy motions, or a peaceful lake lapping the shore gently, 
and no sign of life present. The monotonous, undulating sen- 
sation will affect one like a soothing lullaby, and sleep will 
soon follow. Often a walk in the open air, taken immediately 
before retiring, will induce sleepiness. To struggle for sleep, 



SLEEP AND THE BATH. 



38T 



I 



to long for it too intensely, is to banish it. Gentle thoughts 
of pleasant, simple things are found to be more effective. 

It has been ascertained that within the human organization 
there is an ebb and flow of vital forces, as there is in the sea. 
Mental or physical exertion performed during the low period 
of activities is at the expense of man's stored-up strength, and 
can never be replaced. At ten o'clock at night man's energies 
have greatly relaxed ; between the hours of one and three they 
are at their lowest ebb. All the faculties should be at rest from 
a little after ten to six or seven the next morning. One should 
at least assume a reclining position, relax the muscles and 
banish disturbing thoughts from the brain after the hour of 
ten. 

If one's sleep has been satisfactory, one will wake in the 
morning refreshed, and experience, after a few minutes, a de- 
sire to begin the activities of the day. If there is a tendency 
to doze after it is really time to get up, it is usually a sign of 
over-eating, of insufficient air, or improper respiration. A 
normal, sound and strong person may be trusted to sleep 
enough, and not to sleep more than his nature requires, if con- 
ditions are favorable. The occupation of many people pre- 
vents sleep during the hours especially suited to slumber, and 
they are compelled to adapt themselves to odd hours. No 
doubt this changing of night into day detracts from the vital- 
ity, and materially shortens life; but if such a worker will 
train himself to fall into slumber quickly, and to catch readily 
at any opportunity for a few minutes' repose, he can preserve 
his strength and health to a great extent. 

Sleep is a restorer; and sometimes excessive sleep seems 
essential. In cases of weakness, exhaustion, relief from pain, 
the inclination to prolonged slumber is sometimes remark- 



382 SLEEP AND THE BATH. 

able. But the patient should not be aroused, for Nature under- 
stands her work, and furnishes what is needed. 

Never awaken a sick person to administer medicine. No 
medicine can aid Nature so much as healthy sleep. If in an 
extraordinary instance a child or patient should sleep much 
more than seems reasonable, do not strive to arouse him with 
rude shocks ; he requires medical attendance. 

Cleanliness is Godliness* 

Having bestowed proper attention on respiration, nourish- 
ment and repose, we should give due regard to keeping the 
body pure and clean. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and in- 
deed is godliness — purity. Water is as essential to good 
health and happiness as good food and pure air; but the 
method of applying it has as many phases, and may work in- 
jury or benefit, according to the manner of using it, as with 
these necessities. Water is a blessing to us, a restorative, a 
remedy, it soothes and cleanses us — yet it may be used in such 
a way as to prove itself an enemy. With a little knowledge 
and the exercise of reason there is nothing to fear. 

The principal purpose of a bath should be cleanliness. But. 
from the number of those who shock themselves daily witlf 
quick cold-water plunges, shower baths, etc., one would judge 
cleanliness were the last object sought after. These may be en- 
dured by many, even prove beneficial to robust, warm-blooded 
people ; but they do not cleanse. And the person who depends 
upon these means alone will be surprised, on taking a Turkish 
bath or a good warm bath of any kind, to find how dirty he 
really is. 

Cold baths are not to be condemned indiscriminately. A 
pint of water but little colder than the air of the room, rubbed 
briskly over the body with the open palms, followed by a vig- 



SLBEP^ "AND THE BATH. 383 

orous toweling in the morning, will set a healthy person in a 
glow and establish a cheerful, animated poise for the whole 
day. But if one shrinks from the water instinctively, if there 
is a chilled sensation, and the lips and the ends of the fingers 
turn blue, then cold baths should be tabooed. As one may 
keep up a course of slight injury to himself in eating or over- 
working for years without perceptible consequences, so one 
may take a cold bath daily, chilling the blood slightly each 
time, and feel tolerably vigorous. But the strain on the sys- 
tem is too great, and sooner or later evil consequences will be 
felt. Very delicate persons should not indulge in cold baths, 
because they do not possess sufficient vitalizing reaction. Even 
those who have in reserve a great deal of constitutional vigor 
may feel the effects some time. 

The Proper Manner of Bathings 

The proper way to bathe so as to eliminate all the exuda- 
tions from the skin is to have an abundant supply of soft, 
clear, warm water, good soap and the means for a thorough 
rubbing. One should wash until clean; then rinsing off with 
clear warm water, followed by a mere touch of cold to give 
tone to the system. Rub with good bath towels "until thor- 
oughly dry, and the true object of a bath will have been at- 
tained. 

Very warm baths, indulged in too frequently, are weaken- 
ing. Some people cannot endure entire immersion even in 
warm water, as it disturbs the action of the heart ; these should 
plunge the feet in heated water while the rest of the body is 
being rubbed with the hands or a sponge. For a cold or an 
aching condition of the body, a very warm bath at night is 
beneficial. Sitting in a large tub of hot water, with a blanket 
about the shoulders, for twenty minutes or so, is an excellent 



384 



SLEEP AND THE BATH. 



remedy for a hard cold, or as a preventive after severe ex- 
posure. But one should retire immediately afterward, and 
cover warmly with flannel blankets. 

Impure water is as deleterious to th~e skin as to the stomach. 

If the water is doubtful, add a little sal soda, borax, or, bet- 
ter still, ammonia. Vegetable soaps are best, and for delicate 
skins those soaps which contain little alkali in proportion to 
the quantity of oil should be used. Scented soaps should be 
avoided, as they are not so apt to be pure, and artificial odors 
are not always pleasant. 

Elderly people should not indulge in baths of too long dura- 
tion; in fact, every one should bathe in a manner most desir- 
able and most comfortable. It is never best to urge against 
shrinking nerves any kind of a bath ; as a usual thing, the feel- 
ings are a safe guide. Many people welcome a warm bath 
when weary, some feel refreshed from a cold one, while others 
cannot think of it until after a rest on a couch. Generally, 
bathing when tired is exhausting. 

Sea-bathing is a delightful and refreshing exercise to most 
people, but when a chill follows a plunge the bather should 
be careful. One should become accustomed to the salt atmos- 
phere before going into the surf; only after several days of 
taking the sea air into the lungs is it safe to plunge into the 
brine. Then the trial should be brief and followed by a 
speedy drying. If a sense of warmth comes immediately, one 
is safe to try again, but if one's lips turn blue he should make 
up his mind that the salt water is no friend to him, or that his 
condition is not such as to take kindly to that treatment. 

As a substitute for sea-bathing, saturate a flannel cloth in 
water well impregnated with sea salt, dry it and use daily 
after a warm bath. It is very beneficial to the weak who can- 
not endure sea water. When lives have been despaired of a 



SLEEP AND THE BATH. 385 

rubbing of sweet oil, almond oil or cocoa butter well into the 
pores of the skin has furnished the necessary nutriment and 
stimulant, and saved them. But this should not be resorted 
to except in extreme cases. 

There are various kinds of baths of hot and cold water, 
wet sheets, and packing, that are effectual remedies, but they 
should be understood and given with as much care as one 
would administer medicine. Therefore only trained nurses 
should apply them, when cases seem to call for such treatment. 
It is safe to give, as a general rule, a cold bath in fevers; in 
great pain and in cases of inflammation, hot water applica- 
tions. 

The human civilized being inust keep clean. The savages 
do not often bathe and are not particular about a little dirt 
more or less; but their open-air customs compensate for their 
lack of cleanliness to a great degree, though they would not 
succumb to certain epidemics so readily if they were more ad- 
dicted to washing themselves. Aborigines who live near the 
water use it daily. No doubt the absence of cleanliness 
among some races arises originally from a lack of water. But 
the conditions of civilization make cleanliness imperative; 
retribution comes quickly to those poor people who crowd 
together in cities, and who cannot or will not bathe. Some 
method of purifying the body must be adopted — let condi- 
tions, circumstances, tastes determine what ; only, he clean. 



THE END. 



Alphabetical Index 



Abscesses 

Acidity of the stomach 

Adaptation in marriage 173, 

After-pains 

Afterbirth 

Agamo-genesis 

Air-bath, The. 

Air, need of . '. , Ill, 

Amativeness 

Amenorrhea 

Anaesthetics 

Antenatal influences and heredity, 

Appendicitis 

Applications, external . . . ". 

B 

Babe, the new born 267, 270, 

Babies, requisites for well-born . . 

Baby, how to dress the 

Baby's crying, meaning of 

Bachelor girls 

Bachelor homes 

Bath, air 144, 

Bath, baby's 

Bath for parturient women 

Bath, internal 129, 144, 258, 

Bath, stomach 

Bath, purpose of the 

Bathing , 

Bathing during pregnancy 

Bathing infants 

Bathing, proper manner of 

Baths, various kinds of 

Beauty acquired by self -culture . . 

Beauty and grace 

Beauty and health 

Beauty culture 

Beauty, means for adding to 

Beauty of body and soul 



Bees, experiments with 72 

343 Bed clothing ... 140 

264 Beds 139 

175 Beds for babies 288 

273 Beds, advisability of single 240 

272 Blackheads 146 

3] Body, needs of the 109 

145 Books for the young 171 

253 Breathing 110 

235 Breathing, correct, the basis of 

227 health 143 

65 Breathing exercises. 142 

37 "Breath is life" 361 

226 Bronchial affection 317 

329 



Cancer 

271 Celibacy 

182 Change of life. 
284 Character 



343 

91 

343 

92 

279 Charactor and mind, molding . . . 293 

189 Character-building 306 

189 Character formed by training 164 

145 Character, ideals of 100 

277 Character in embryo 259 

267 Character, pre-natal 260 

338 Chicken.pox 321 

124 Child-bearing, frequent 222 

382 Child-bearing period, duration of, 343 

126 Child-birth.. 266 

256 Child-birth, painless 269, 270 

277 "Child crowing" 315 

383 Childhood, disorders of 307 

127 Childhood, training of 160 

10? Child nature, the phenomena of. . 161 

152 Children, desirability of 181 

153 Children, diet for 121 

144 Children, growth of 304 

1 04 Children, rearing of 310 

109 Chloroform 65 

386 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



387 



Cholera infantum 318 

Cleanliness, physical 383 

♦'Cleanliness is godliness" 382 

Clermont, Jane, example of 359 

Clothing for children 373 

Colds 316 

Colic 313 

Colon, flushing the 129 

Conception and' gestation 30 

Conception , 2il, 249 

Conjugal love 42 

Complexion, the 144 

Conception, prevention of . . . 184, 235 

Constipation 124, 264 

Contagious diseases 362 

Contagious diseases may be 

avoided 363 

Continence the law of love 184 

Convulsion 316 

Corns 152 

Corsets 114, 134, 332 

Counter-irritation 329 

Creative force 86 

Crying babies 279 

Crying babies unnatural 289 

Croup 316 

Croup, membranous 328 

Curvature of the spine 290 

D 

Dandruff, cure for 148 

Degeneracy 223 

Del Sarte breathing exercise 142 

Del Sarte, Frangois 152 

Desire, pov^er of , . 93 

Despondency 97 

Dianism 237 

Diarrhoea. . . . 124, 264, 289, 311, 318 

Dickens, quotations 92 

Diet 120 

Diet,effect of ,in sex determination, 67 

Diet during pregnancy 255 

Diet for children 283 



Diet in case of painful menstrua- 
tion 226 

Diet, royal, of bees 73 

Digestion 375 

Digestive powers, abuse of the. . . 129 

Diphtheria 327 

Dizziness 265 

Dress during pregnancy 253 

Dress for babes 267, 284 

Dress, hygienic 130 

Dropsy 24^ 

Drugs, danger of, for children . . . 289 

Dysmenorrhea 223, 225 

Dyspepsia 124 

E 

Ear, abscess of the 320 

Eating 367 

Eating, right times for 374 

Eating, rules for 125, 369 

Edgerton, poem by 100, 201 

Education, need of the higher. . . 169 

Education, home lessons 170 

Education by good books 171 

Eliot, George, quotation from ... 163 

Embryo, sex tendency in the .... 68 

Energy, the right direction of . . . 136 

Eruptions, facial 146 

Evolution 93 

Eyelids, inflammation of 309 

Eyes, care of the 151 

Exercise 332 

Exercise during pregnancy 251 

Exercise, equalization of 226 

Exercise for children 304 

Exercise for infants. 290 

Exercise, special 141 

Experiments in sex-determination, 97 

F 

Face, bathing the 145 

Facial eruptions 146 

Facial expression 105 



388 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



Facial massage 146 

Family life 181 

Fear, the folly of 90 

Feeding infants 277, 279 

Feeding of infants, artificial, 275, 281 

Feeding the new-born babe 

271,274, 275, 276 

Feet, care of the 151 

Female organism superior 78 

Figure, female, proportion of the, 119 

Fission 81 

Flooding after childbirth 271 

Flowers, sex in 12, 16 

Flowing, excessive 229 

Food 120 

Food, combinations of 124 

Food, the fuel of the body 373 

Food, variety in, desirable , 370 

Freckles 147 

Froebel on food 121 

Frogs, experiments with 71 

Fruits 125 

Fruit, value of, during pregnancy, 34 

G 

Gamo-genesis 81 

Generation 81 

Generation, sexual 248 

Generation, the organs of 20 

Generative organs, female 19 

Genius and sexuality 91 

Good and evil 95 

Gowns, sensible and artistic 132 

Growth of infants 296 

H 

Habit, power of 107 

Hands, care of the 147 

Hands, chapped 148 

Hair, care of the 148 

Hair, superfluous 149 

Happiness in the marriage relation, 178 

Haying-time in Scotland 193 



Headache 265 

Health and beauty 348 

Health is beauty 154 

Heartburn 264 

Helpfulness 201 

Heredity and antenatal influences, 37 

Home-making 188 

Home to unfold the larger life. . . 197 

Hosiery 132 

Hot-air bath 127 

Humanity, oneness of 108 

Hysteria 264 

I 

Ideal man, the 55 , 

Ideal woman, the 57 

Ideals, ante-nuptial 169 

Ideals of character 100 

Idleness 108 

Ignorance, cause of women's ail- 
ments 331 

Illicit intercourse 47 

Indians, example of, in breathing, 361 

Infancy, disorders of. ... 307 

Infancy, hygiene of 277 

Infants' clothing 284, 286 

Infants, development of 296 

Infants, feeding of 277, 279 

Infants, sleep of 287 

Infants, spiritual development of, 292 

Infectious diseases 320 

Inner and outer life 104 

Intercourse, sexual 183, 236, 237 

lutercourse during pregeancy. . . . 261 

Internal bath 258, 338 

J 

Joy Lesson, Mrs. Talbot's 106 

K 

Knowledge of most worth 85 

Know thyself 53 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



389 



L 

Labor, the three stages of 268 

Laceration of perineum 258 

Lacing tight 115 

Leucorrhea 337 

Life, dominant dower of 92 

Life, inner and outer 104 

Life, long, not a secret 122, 352 

Life, making the best of 358 

Life, mature '. 204 

Life's laws, teaching 170 

Life, teaching the origin of 171 

Life, the harmony of 172 

Life, the vital principle of 81, 91 

Literature for the young 162 

Living, rational methods of 353 

Long life, the secret of 122 

Love 95 

Love, Emerson on 167 

Love, mysticism surrounding .... 90 

Love-union, the 236, 242 

Lungs, the 110 

M 

Maidenhood 155 

Marital self-control 243 

Marriage 88, 171, 172 

Marriage and sensuality 170 

Marriage, complementary life of, 182 

Marriage, friendships in 179 

Marriage, ideal 168 

Marriage, mental harmony in ... . 173 

Marriage, perfect 178 

Marriage, physical adaptation in. 175 

Marriage, preparation for 87 

Marriage, true 91 

Marriage relation, the 232 

Massage , 228 

Massage, facial 146 

Massage for the hair 148 

Massey,Gerald,on rearing children 305 

Mating 171 

Measles 322 



Medicine chest, the mother's .... 328 

Menopause, the 343 

Menorrhagia 228 

Menses 219 

Menses, suppression of the 227 

Menstruation 219 

Menstruation, excessive 228 

Menstruation, painful 223 

Menstruation, irregular 229 

Menstruation, vicarious 223 

Mental harmony 173 

Mind, the power of 214 

Moderation in diet 121 

Morning sickness 255, 264 

Morris, William, on art 199 

Mother during pregnancy 34 

Mother hood 245 

Motherhood, enforced 235 

Mother, the convalescent 274 

Mumps 324 

N 

Nails, ingrowing 152 

Natural selection, the law of 194 

Navel, the 307 

Navel, rupture of the 308 

Nervousness 264 

Neuralgia 265 

Nursing 302 

Nursing mother 284 

Nursing sore mouth 310 

o 

Obesity 124 

Offspring, desirability of 9,-245 

Offspring, determining sex of. . .14, 67 
Offspring, requisites for well- 
born 9, 247 

Offspring, transmission of 81 

Old age, youth in 206 

Organs of generation 9 

Ovaries, removal of 70, 221 

Ovum, the 21, 249 



390 



ALPHBBETICAL INDEX 



Ovum, the (diagram) 21 

Oxygen 110 

P 

Painless childbirth. 60 

Parental control of sex 67 

Parental love 246 

Parents as teachers of truth 157 

Parents their children's comrades, 161 

Parturition 266 

Passion, guidance of 86 

Passion, ungoverned 238 

Physiognomy 92 

Pimples 146 

Plant life, sex in 16 

Pregnancy, bathing during. . .251, 256 

Pregnancy, diet during 255 

Pregnancy, disorders of 263 

Pregnancy, dress during 253 

Pregnancy, duration of 265 

Pregnancy, exercise during 251 

Pregnancy, intercourse during . . . 261 

Pregnancy, physical signs of 263 

Pregnancy, the period of 250 

Pre-natal culture 241 

Pre-natal influence 248, 259, 260 

Prevention of sickness 365 

Preventives to conception , 184 

Prudery and ignorance 156 

Prudishness, the curse of 155 

Puberty 25, 85 

Puberty, age of 220 

Q 

Qui Vive's (Mme) skin food 145 

R 

Reason and thought 92 

Recreation 137 

Relation of health to beauty 348 

"Resolution" 100 

Respiration 110 

Rest - 138 

Rest during pregnancy 251 



s 

Salisbury's (Dr.) system 124 

Scarlet fever 323 

Sea bathing 384 

Self -abuse 50, 332 

Self-control, marital, 243 

Self-culture 103 

Self -culture and beauty 105 

Sensualism 84 

Sensuality and marriage 170 

Sex and life 14, 91 

Sex a quality of soul 159 

Sex controlled by parents 67 

Sex, definition of 14, 81 

Sex, determination of 14, 67, 82 

Sexes, equality of the 165 

Sex in plant-life 16 

Sex of animals 18 

Sex of offspring 67 

Sex principle, manifestation of. . . 85 

Sex tendency in the embryo 67 

Sex, the force of 193 

Sexual attraction 87 

Sexual generation 248 

Sexual instinct 82 

Sexual intercourse 1 83 

Sexuality and genius 91 

Sexual organs, female 14 

Sexual organs in plants 17 

Sexual organs, male 23 

Sexual organs of human being. , . 20 

Sexuality in plays 89 

Sexual passion 28 

Shoes 132, 152 

Sitz bath 127, 257, 267 

Sin 94 

Skin, care of the 144 

Skin food, recipe 145 

Sleep and the bath 376 

Sleep for babes 287 

Sleep for children 283 

Sleep, how long to 378 

Sleep, proper position for . . . 140, 1 46 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



391 



Sleep, when to 379 

Sleeping-room, married people 
should not occupy the same . . . 240 

Sleeping-rooms 112, 139 

Sleeping-apartments, proper 376 

Sleeplessness 264 

Sleeplessness, remedy for 145 

Social intercourse 91 

Society 91 

Soul, the temple of the 103 

Spermatozoa 249 

Stage, relation of, to sexuality. . . 89 

Stockings 132 

Stomach bath 124 

Stories, salacious 90 

"Strike of a sex" 241 

Summer complaint 289, 318 

Syringe, use of the 129 

Sunburn 147 



Talbot's (Mrs.) Joy Lesson 106 

Teaching hand and brain 171 

Teaching the origin of life 171 

Teeth, care of the 149 

Teething 283, 299, 301, 314 

Teeth of infants 149, 299, 301 

Thought and reason 92 

Thought-force, experiment with. . 96 

Thought, influenc8 cf 104 

Thought, pure 333 

Thought, purity of 176 

Thought, the power of 93, 214 

Thrush 310 

"Tom-boy," the 160 

Tonsilitis 327 

Training, character formed by. . . 164 

Training of childhood 160 

Training of youth 85 

Tumors 343 



u 

Ulceration of the uterus 342 

Umbilical cord 307 

Underclothing 131 

Unselfishness, the blessing of ... . 247 

Urine, irritation from 308 

Uterus, displacement of the 340 

Uterus, ulceration of the 342 

V 

Vapor bath 127 

Vegetarianism 371 

Ventilation Ill 

w 

Waist measurement 118 

Water, hot, effects of 129, 130 

Waterbrash 264 

Weaning 282 

Weight and height 119 

Whooping-cough 325 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, quotations 

from 96 

Will, Nature and the 355 

Women's ailments causes of 335 

Woman in the new century 190 

Woman, professions for 189 

Woman's "sphere" 192 

Womanhood, the unfolding of . . . 155 

Work 135 

Wrinkles, prevention of 146 

Y 

Yogi breathing 362 

Youth in old age 206 

Youth, the fountain of 213 

z 

"Zugassent's Discovery" 241, 243 



DICTIONARY OF MEDICAL TERMS 



Abdomen (n.) Cavity between the diaphragm and the pelvic 

floor; belly. 
Abdominal (adj.) Relating to the abdomen. 

Abnormal (adj.) Contrary to law or system; irregular; unnatural. 
Abortion (n.) Untimely birth. 
Abscess (n.) A gathering of pus in any tissue. 
Accoucheur (n.) (Fem^, Accoucheuse). One who assists women in 

childbirth. 
Acute (adj.) Not chronic; coming speedily to a crisis. 
Alimentary (adj.) Pertaining to feeding or nourishment. 
Allopathy (n.) A school of medicine which aims to cure disease 

by means of remedies producing effects opposite to the symp- 
toms of the special disease treated. (See Homeopathy.) 
Alterative (n.) A mild cathartic. 

Ambidexterity (n.) The use of both hands with equal facility. 
Amenorrhea (n.) Suppression or retention of the menses. 
Ammonia (n.) Spirits of hartshorn. 
Anaemia (n.) (See Anemia) , 

Anatomy (n.) The art of dissecting an animal body. 
Anemia (n.) Want of blood. 
Anemic (adj.) Bloodless. 
Anaesthetic (n.) Any substance used to render persons insensible 

to pain. 
Adipose (adj.) Fatty. 
Animal (n.) A living being endowed with feeling and voluntary 

motion, (adj.) Pertaining to animals; gross; carnal. 
Anodyne (n.) A medicine allaying pain. 
Antenatal (adj.) Before birth. 
Anteversion (n.) Bending forward. 

Antiseptic (adj.) Preventing or retarding putrefaction. 
Anus (n.) The opening or outlet of the bowels through which 

excrement is expelled. 
Aorta (n.) The great artery of the heart. 
Aperient (adj.) Laxative; loosening. 

Aphtha (n.) A disease otherwise called nursing sore mouth. 
Appendix vermiformis (n.) A blind process on the caecum, 3 to 

6 inches long. 
Arterial (adj.) Pertaining to an artery. 
Artery (n.) A tube carrying blood from the heart and connected 

with the veins by capillaries. 
Astringent (adj.) Binding; contracting (opposed to laxative or 

aperient). 
Auricles (n.) Upper chambers of the heart. 

392 



DICTIONARY OF 3,^3 

Auricular (adj.) Relating to the ear, or hearing. 

AMscultation (n.) The act of determining diseases by listening to 
sounds within the body. 

Axilla (n.) Armpit. 

Bacteria (n.) Animal organisms of the smallest size. 

Birth (n.) The act of bearing or bringing forth, or of being boin. 

Caecum (n.) A cavity open at one end; the blind gut, or that part 
of the large intestine beyond the entrance of the small in- 
testine. 

Cancer (n.) A malignant tumor. 

Capillary (n.) Hair-like vessel conveying blood from the arteries 
to the veins. 

Capsicum (n.) Cayenne pepper. 

Cardiac (adj.) Belonging to the heart. 

Carnal (adj.) Fleshy; sensual. 

Catamenial (adj.) Monthly; pertaining to the menstrual dis- 
charges. 

Catarrh (n.) Discharge of mucus from a mucous membrane. 

Cathartic (n.) A purgative; that which increases the action of the 
bowels. 

Caul (n.) Membranes which, if not ruptured, cover the new-jorn 
child's head and face. 

Cavity (n). A hollow place. 

Celibacy (n.) The unmarried state. 

Cell (n.) A small, closed hollow place. In organic structures a 
minute sac, filled with fluid, and originating the parts of ani- 
mals or plants by growth or reproduction. 

Cellular (adj.) Pertaining to, consisting of or containing' cells. 

Cellulitis (n.) Inflammation of cellular tissues. 

Cervix (n.) The neck. 

Cervix uteri (n.). The neck of the womb. 

Chorion (n.) The external membrane enveloping the fetus. 

Chronic (adj.) Of long continuance. 

Chrysalis (n.) The form of a butterfly, etc., before reaching the 
winged state. 

Circumcision (n.) The cutting off the foreskin in the case of males, 
or the internal labia in the case of females. 

Clavicle (n.) The collar bone. 

Climacteric (n.) A critical point or period. 

Coccyx (n.) The terminal bone of the spine. 

Colon (n.) That part of the large intestine extending from the 
caecum to the rectum. 

Conception (n.) The act of conceiving in the womb; tlie beginning 
of embryonic life. 

Congestion (n.) Unnatural accumulation of blood. 

Conjugal (adj.) Belonging to marriage. 

Contusion (n.) Bruise. 

Convergent (adj.) Coming together or inclining to one point. 

Convoluted (adj.) Rolled together. 

Counterirritant (n.) An irritant intended to relieve an irritation 
already existing in another part. 

Cuticle (n.) Skin. 

Defecation (n.) The act of voiding feces. 

Degeneracy (n.) Decline; moral degradation. 



394 MEDICAL TERMS 

Desquamation (n.) The peeling or shedding of skin in the form of 

flakes or scales. 
Diagnosis (n.) Distinguishing a disease by its symptoms. 
Diarrhoea (n.) Flux; morbidly frequent _ evacuation of intestines. 
Digitalis (n.) Fox-glove. 

Diaphoretic (adj.) A remedy producing perspiration. 
Diaphragm (n.) Muscular sheet separating chest and abdomen. 
Diphtheria (n.) A malignant membranous disease of the throat. 
Diphtheritic (adj.) Pertaining to diphtheria. 

Diuretic (adj.) Causing increased discharge of urine. 

Duodenum (n.) That part of the small intestine between the stom- 
ach and the jejunum. 

Dysmenorrhea (n.) Painful or diflicult menstruation. 

Embryo (n.) The beginning of anything; first state of an animal 
or plant not distinctly formed. 

Embryonic (adj.) In an initial (beginning) state. 

Enceinte (adj.) Pregnant. 

Enema (n.) Injection. 

Enteritis (n.) Inflammation of the intestines. 

Epidermis (n.) Outer skin. 

Ergot (n.) Smut of rye. A poisonous fungus growth. 

Eustachian valve. A valve of the heart, directing the course of the 
blood. 

Evacuate (v.) To empty. 

Excoriation (n.) Chafing or abrasion of the skin. 

Excrement (n.) Waste matter discharged from the animal sys- 
tem; dung. 

Excrete (v.) To discharge from the system. 

Faecal (adj.) Pertaining to or containing faeces. 

Faeces (n.) Elxcrement; dregs. 

Fallopian Tubes (n.) . The tubes leading from the ovaries to the 
uterus. 

Fetal. Same as foetal. 

Feces. Same as faeces. 

Feculent (adj.) Foul; muddy. 

Fecundation (n.) Impregnation; fertilization. 

Fertilize (v.) To enrich or make productive. 

Fetal.. Same as faetal. 

Fetus. Same as foetus. 

Fimbriated (adj.) Fringed; finger-like. 

Flatulence (n.) Presence of gases in the stomach or bowels. 

Flex (v.) Bend. 

Foetal (adj.) Pertaining to a foetus. 

Foetus (n.) A young animal in the womb which has passed the 
embryonic state; human child in womb after fifth month: 

Fomentation (n.) The act of applying warm lotions or p(?Qaices. 

Formative (ndj.) Shaping. e^i/* 

Function (n.) Special work or action assigned to an organ. '■* 

Ganglia (n.) Nerve centers. 

Ganglionic (adj.) Pertaining to ganglia. 

Gangrene (n.) Mortification of soft tissues. 

Gastritis (n.) Inflammation of the stomach. 

Generation (n.) Bringing into life. 

Genesis (n.) Origin or production; beginning. 

Genitals (n.) The exterior organs of generation. 



1 



DICTIONARY OF 395 

Germ (n.) First principle; seed-bud; origin. 

Germinal (adj.) Pertaining to germs. 

Gestation (n.) Pregnancy. 

Gland (n.) A secreting organ. 

Gustatory (adj.) Pertaining to the taste. 

Gynecologist (n.) One who practices or studies gynecology. 

Gynecology (n.) The science which treats of the female organs. 

Homeopathy (n.) A school of medicine which aims to cure diseases 
by a system of minute doses of drugs which in health excite 
symptoms similar to those of the disease treated. 

Hemorrhage (n.) A flowing of blood. 

Hemorrhoids (n.) Piles. 

Hygiene (n.) The science of the preservation and restoration of 
health. 

Hymen (n.) The original membrane often found at the orifice 
of the vagina. 

Hyperemia (n.) E2xcess of blood. 

Hypogastric (adj.) Pertaining to the lower abdomen. 

Illicit (adj.) Unlawful; forbidden. 

Immature (adj.) Unripe; undeveloped. 

Imperforate (adj.) Having no opening. 

Impotency (n.) Want of male sexual power. 

Impregnate (v.) To make pregnant; to cause to conceive. 

Inchoate (adj.) Unfinished; only begun. 

Incubation (n.) Hatching. 

Individual (n.) A single person or thing; one. (adj.) Pertaining 
to one only. 

Induration (n.) Hardening. 

Infusoria (n.) Microscopic insects. 

Innate (adj.) Inborn 

Inoculate (v.) To insert the virus of a disease in the ^.kin or flesh. 

Insomnia (n.) Sleeplessness. 

Integument (n.) Skin. 

Intestine (n.) Tlie long convoluted tube extending from the stom- 
ach to the anus. 

Introversion (n.) Turning within. 

Involuntary (adj.) Independent of the will. 

Jejunum (n.) The first part of the smaller intestine. 

Labia (n.) The lips of the vagina. 

Laxative (n.) A purgative medicine, (adj.) Relieving costiveness; 
loosening, 

Leucorrhea (n.) The whites. (Disease of the vagina causing a 
mucous discharge.) 

Lingual (adj.) Pertaining to the tongue or speech. 

Lochia (n.) Discharge from the womb after childbirth. 

Lymph (n.) A colorless fluid in animal bodies. 

Mammal (n.) An animal that suckles its young. 

Mammary (adj.) Pertaining to the female breast or mamma. 

Manna (n.) A sweetish secretion from many trees. 

Marital (adj.) Pertaining to marriage. 

Masculine (adj.) Male. 

Massage (n.) Manipulation of surface and muscles for healing 
purposes. 

Masturbation (n.) Self-abuse. 

Materia Medica (n.) The science of the nature and properties of 



896 MEDICAL TERMS 

all substances used as medicines. 

Mature (adj.) Ripe; developed. 

Maturity (n.) Ripeness. 

Meconium (n.) First excrement of new-born child. 

Membrane (n.) A thin layer or fold of tissue. 

Menopause (n.) Change of life. 

Menorrhagia (n.) E"xcessive menstruation. 

Menses (n.) A periodic bloody flow from the uterus. 

Menstrual (adj.) Monthly. 

Menstruation (n.) The discharge of the menses. 

Mercury (n.) A white liquid metal. In medicine, a salt or prep- 
aration of that metal, as calomel, blue pill, etc. 

Metritis (n.) Inflammation of the womb. 

Miasm (n.) Noxious effluvia. 

Morbific (adj.) Causing disease. 

Mucous (adj.) Pertaining to mucus. 

Mucus (n.) A viscid or slimy fluid secreted by a mucous mem- 
brane. 

Narcotic (n.) Inducing sleep or stupor. 

Nasal (adj.) Pertaining to the nose. 

Neuralgia (n.) A pain in the nerves or face. 

Nutrition (n.) Nourishment. 

Obstetrics (n.) Midwifery, tokology. 

Offspring (n.) Issue; children. 

Optic (adj.) Pertaining to the eye or the sight. 

Organ (n.) In medicine, that by which a natural operation is car- 
ried on. 

Os uteris (n.) Mouth of womb. 

Osseous (adj.) Bony. 

Ova (n.) Plural of ovum; eggs. 

Ovary (n.) The part of the female in which the egg of the off- 
spring is formed. 

Oviducts (adj.) Tubes which convey the ova from the ovaries to 
the uterus. 

Ovule (n.) A small egg. The diminutive of ovum. 

Ovum (n.) An egg. (Plural, ova.) 

Palliative (adj.) Serving to mitigate or cover up. 

Paralysis (n.) Palsy; cessation of function. 

Parent (n.) Father or mother. 

Parturient (adj.) Bringing forth young. 

Parturition (n.) Childbirth. 

Passive (adj.) Unresisting. 

Pathological (adj.) Pertaining to diseases. 

Pathology (n.) Science of diseases. 

Pelvic (adj.) Pertaining to the pelvis. 

Pelvis (n.) The bony structure inclosing the urinary and genital 
organs. 

Perineum (n.) The floor of the pelvis. 

Peritoneum (n.) A membrane lining the walls and organs of the 
abdomen. 

Peritonitis (n.) . Inflammation of the peritoneum. 

Physiology (n.) The science which treats of the organs of plants 
and animals. 

Piles (n.) Tumors in and about the anus. 

Placenta (n.) The after-birth. 



DICTIONARY OF 397 

Pledget (n.) A small tent of lint, or compress, laid over wounds, 

ulcers, etc. 
Plethoric (adj.) Fleshy; fat. 
Post-mortem (n.) After death. 
Post partum. Subsequent to childbirth. 
Pregnancy (n.) State of being pregnant 
Pregnant (adj.) Being with young. 

Primapara (n.) Woman who has brought forth her first child. 
Procreation (n.) Production of young. 
Prognosis (n.) Foretelling the course of a disease. 
Prophylactic (adj. or n.) Preservative. 
Prolapsus uteri (n.) Falling of the womb. 
Puberty (n.) Ripe age in the sexes. 
Pubes (n.) Kxternal part of the organs of generation, covered with 

hair in puberty. 
Pubic (adj.) Pertaining to the pubes. 
Pulmonary (n.) Pertaining to, or affecting, the lungs. 
Puerperal (adj.) Pertaining to childbirth. 
Purulent (adj.) Consisting of pus. 
Putrefaction (n.) Offensive decay; rotting. 
Pyemia (n.) Poisoning by absorption of pus. 
Rectal (adj.) Pertaining to the rectum. 
Rectum (adj.) Lower portion of the intestine. 
Renal (adj.) Pertaining to the kidneys. 
Retroversion (n.) Falling backward. 
Sac (n.) A bag, cavity or receptacle closed at one end. 
Saline (adj.) Salty. 
Saliva (n.) Spittle. 

Saponification (n.) Conversion into soap. 
Sciatic (adj.) , Pertaining to the hip. 

Scrofula (n.) . A tuberculous disease, generally hereditary. 
Scrotum (n.) The pouch or bag containing the testicles. 
Sebaceous (adj.) Fatty; oily. 
Sedative (adj.) Quieting; soothing. 

Semen (n.) Seed; the male generative product of animals. 
Seminal (adj.) Pertaining to semen or seed. 
Sensory (adj.) Pertaining to the sense of feeling. 
Septum (n.) Interior wall by which different parts are separated. 
Serous membrane (n.) The lining of cavities having no external 

opening. 
Siesta (n.) A midday nap. 
Sitz-bath (n.) A bath in a sitting position. 
Spasmodic (adj.) Pertaining to spasm; coming in spasms. 
Sperm (n.) Animal seed. 
Spermatozoa (n.) Microscopic particles, capable of motion, that 

exist in semen. 
Stadium (n.) Stage. (Plural stadia.) 
Stamen (n.) The male organ of a flower. 
Sterility (n.) Barrenness. 
Stimulant (n.) That which excites. 
Stimulate (v.) Excite to action. 

Suppository (n.) A bolus or pill to be placed in the rectum. 
Suppuration (n.) The generation of pus, as in a boil or abscess. 
Synchronous (adj.) Occurring at the same time. 



398 MEDICAL TERMS 

Synovial fluid (n.) A transparent, viscid fluid secreted by menir 

branes. 
System (n.) Regular arrajigement of parts or things to form one 

entire plan or scheme. 
Term (n.) Full time of gestation. 
Testicle (n.) Seminal gland or stone. 
Testis (n.) Testicle. (Plural, testes.) - 
Therapeutic (adj.) Curative. 

Tlierapeutics (n.) Science of the use of remedies for disease. 
Tissue (n.) Material composing a part. 
Tocology (n.) Same as Tokology. 
Tokology (n.) The science of childbirth. From the Greek words 

tokos (birth) and logos (discourse, knowledge). 
Toxocological (adj.) Pertaining to poisons. 
Trachea (n.) Windpipe. 
Tumor (n.) A swelling. 
Tympanum (adj.) The drum of the ear. 
Umbilical (adj.) Pertaining to the navel. 
Umbilicus (n.) The navel, 
Urinary (adj.) Pertaining to the urine. 
Uterine (adj.) Relating to the uterus. 
Uterus (n.) Womb, in which the foetus is developed. 
Vagina (n.) A sheath; the passage leading from the uterus. 
Varicose veins. Veins permanently dilated, with accumulation of 

dark-colored blood. 
Vascular (adj.) Pertaining to the blood vessels. 
Vena cava (n.) The large vein communicating with the heart. 
Venereal (adj.) Pertaining to sexual love; when applied to disease, 

that arising from sexual intercourse. 
Venous (adj.) Pertaining to the veins. 
Ventricle (n.) One of the lower chambers of the heart. 
Vermiform (adj.) In the form or shape of a worm. 
Vesicle (n.) A small cavity in the human body; a little bladder 

on the skin. 
Vicarious (adj.) Suffered or done in the place of another. 
Virus (n.) Contagious or poisonous matter. 
Viscera (n. pi.) The organs contained in the abdomen. 
Vital (adj.) Necessary to life; indispensable. 
Vulva (n.) The narrow opening in the external parts of the female 

organs of generation. 
Zymotic (adj.) Caused by bacteria or fermentation. 



